“Even a good place gets to be a rut, especially if you're standing in it alone... Alone and lonely have the same root.”

“Better, Cilla thought, to be alone on a quiet night than to be alone in a crowd. Much better.”

“If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.”

“I have to get used to it—to her, but she's put a light in him so I think I'm going to be a fan.""You're a stand-up gal, Swede.""If she screws him up, I'll peel the skin off her ass with a dull razor blade.”

“If people let other people alone, people would be better off. It's always people that screw things up for people anyway.”

“The socializing hadn't been so bad, he acknowledged, and he couldn't say he minded the food, though a man would do better with a good beef sandwich. Still it was plentiful, even if you did have to pick your way through half of it to get to something recognizable.”

“I fear feeling my heart break a second time, because I'm not sure I could survive it. I'd rather live alone than risk the pain.”