“That was the thing about Levantin: he loved the birds, but he really loved the places they brought him. When you spend your career in the confines of a gray suit, the pipits at dawn above timberline are even more wondrous.”

“Ah, Colorado: the one place in America where people wake up earlier on weekends than workdays.”

“The whole world goes on and on about love. Poets spend their lives writing about it. Everyone thinks it's the most wonderful thing. But, when you mention two guys in love, they forget all that and freak out.”

“He could say nothing. He had no right to be there, he had already been profoundly changed, he was no good at small talk, she was half naked, it was dawn and he loved her.”

“Man is a marvelous curiosity … he thinks he is the Creator’s pet … he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea?”

“When your parents die, Alessandro, you feel that you have betrayed them.""Why?" Luciana asked. "Because you come to love your children more. I lost my mother and father to images in photographs and handwriting on letters, and as I abandoned them for you, the saddest thing was that they made no protest."Even now that I'm going back to them, I regret above all that I must leave you.""You're not going back to anybody," Alessandro told him. "We'll solve those problems later.""Alessandro," his father said, almost cheerfully. "You don't understand. This kind of problem is very special: it has no solution.”

“The irony of life is that the child begins to become an adult when he starts to live alone and he loses the security provided by those who love him and are always close to him.”