“I'm scared of losing this web we're in. This elusive, indefinable, opposite of loneliness.”

“My father used to tease me at the table by implying that “cold Claire” had brought in the draft. I had three older sisters, all beautiful, and I was always less affected than them, slow to smile. I remember finding it extremely hard to open presents as a child because the requisite theatricality was too exhausting. My sisters forever humiliated me over a moment in fifth grade when I’d opened a present from my grandmother and declared, straight-faced, “I already have this.”

“Yell to be heard and no one will listen, speak in whispers and all will strain to hear.”

“Why doesn't anyone ask me anything about the last two years?" I asked her."The answer is very simple. We're afraid to ask because we're afraid of knowing... Maybe if we don't talk about it, and maybe if we pretend it never happened, it will be forgotten.”

“Many's the man lost much just because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing.”

“I will learn fifteen types of wind and know the weight of tomorrow's rain by the rustle in the sycamores.”

“The ANZACs, clinging lost and leaderless to the hillsides, began, as the hot afternoon gave way to grey drizzle, to experience their martyrdom.”