“No matter how smart she appeared, she wasfragile at her core.”

“She had been so consumed with escaping her own misery, she hadn't considered the misery she might inflict.”

“Please do not leave me, he thought. He could not bear a world without Alli. He realized how much he relied on her from morning until night. She was his only conversation. His only smile. She prepared their meager food and always offered it to him first, even though he insisted she eat before he did. THey leaned on each other at sunsets. Holding her as they slept felt like his last connection to humanity.”

“She wanted to blame him, to blame her whole rotton existence. But seeing Ethan, seeing her mother, seeing the world after the world she had known, somehow took her to the very bottom, the end of self-delusion, and the truth enveloped her like a cocoon, and all she said was "I was so lonely." And Father Time said, "You were never alone.”

“You can feel the whole world and still feel lost in it. So many people are in pain-- no matter how smart or accomplished--they cry, they yearn, they hurt. But instead of looking down on things, they look up, which is where I should have been looking, too. Because when the world quiets to the sound of your own breathing, we all want the same things: comfort, love and a peaceful heart.”

“Some of them she had seen for four years without exchanging a word. But that was how high school worked; it issued a verdict and you behaved accordingly.”

“the running boy is inside every man, no matter how old he gets.”