“There's not much you need to know about the world. Except how to use a sword and trust very few.”

“I didn't realize until those few days how much a hug meant. To have someone hold you could be the greatest medicine of all.”

“Never underestimate the value of knowing another's language. It can be far more powerful than swords and arrows.”

“...he wanted to be all poetic, but in an instant he forgot Joe's poem about Japan except the part about 'you are the bell, and I am the tongue of the bell, ringing you,' and a new sound entered his life...”

“He is the most beautiful creature I have ever seen and it's not about his face, but the life force I can see in him. It's the smile and the pure promise of everything he has to offer. Like he's saying, 'Here I am world, are you ready for so much passion and beauty and goodness and love and every other word that should be in the dictionary under the word life?' Except this boy is dead, and the unnaturalness of it makes me want to pull my hair out with Tate and Narnie and Fitz and Jude's grief all combined. It makes me want to yell at the God that I wish I didn't believe in. For hogging him all to himself. I want to say, 'You greedy God. Give him back. I needed him here.”

“You know something,Jacob, I'd hate to be as smart as Jonh. I mean he was really, really smart, and to be that smart means you know all the answers, and when you know all the answers there's no room for dreaming.”

“Catch the news/One more day/Big wide world/Swallowed whole/Rhythm breaks me/Out of step/Need to shake this/'Less I break/'Cause nothing counts when you're not here/Too much sadness, too much fear”