“When you wept it was just over yourself and not because of the marvelous impossibility of reaching her through the difference that separates you.”

“Funny, transformative events were not always scheduled and not always expected. Yeah, sure, your change turned you into a male. And when you went through the mating ceremony, you were part of a whole. No longer just yourself. And the deaths and the births around you made you view the world differently. But every once in a while, from out of the blue, someone reaches the quiet place where you spend your private time and changes the way you see yourself. If you’re lucky it’s your mate…the transformation reminds you once again that you are absolutely, positively with the right person: because what they say doesn’t touch you because of who they are to you, but because of the content of their message.”

“She doesn't want you to understand her. She knows that's impossible. She just wants you to understand yourself. Everything else is negotiable.”

“You can't just make yourself matter and then die, Alaska, because now I am irretrievably different..”

“You see if you tell yourself the same tale over and over again enough times then the tellings become separate stories and you will generally fool yourself into forgetting you started with one solitary season out of your life.”

“You don't get married for yourself, you get married because you're better together than separate.”