“One minute the teacher was talking about the Civil War. And the next minute he was gone. There. Gone. No 'poof.' No flash of light. No explosion.”

“Losing someone you love is harder. One minute they're there, the next they're gone. There were times I wished they would rise up from the dead.”

“With my mom, when someone was gone, they were gone. She didn't waste another minute thinking about them, and neither should you.”

“You're dying right now. Right this minute.' He looked at his watch, said, 'Right this second,' then tapped it with his finger. 'See there? That second passed. It's gone. Not gonna come again. And while I'm talking to you, every second I'm talking, a second is passing. Gone. Count them up. Count them down. They're gone. Each one bringing you closer to your dying time.”

“Rewriting a peace treaty," he said. "Semester project."Talk about a thrill-a-minute. "Why are we moving the desks?"He snorted. "Who the hell knows. He probably read about this in a teachers' magazine.”

“The man was an enigma. One minute he was looking at her as though he wouldkiss her senseless, the next he refused to even talk to her, much less look at her.”