“[H]e looked at me gravely and asked, "Are you ready?" "No," I said. "I'm pretty sure I've never been ready for anything that had to be prefaced with that question.”

“She looked at me and smiled and said"Are you ready?"And I was.I finally was.I had never been more ready in my life.Yeah...This girl.My mother would have loved this girl.Too bad she was just a dream.”

“I never even believed in happiness. I didn't think it existed. Now look at me. I'm ready to believe in just about anything.”

“I'll make sure you're ready," he said gently. "And then I'm gonna make you beg me.”

“Think about the answers of the questions that have not yet been asked! When they are asked, you will have the answers ready!”

“I had hardly begun to readI asked how can you ever be surethat what you write is reallyany good at all and he said you can'tyou can't you can never be sureyou die without knowingwhether anything you wrote was any goodif you have to be sure don't write”