“…the love we most cherish will, of necessity, bring us pain. Because that love is like the setting of a body with broken bones. But I want to stage the setting. I want to direct all scenes.”

“And I shall set this last truth down. We are who we are because of those we choose to love and because of those who love us.”

“I think the things we want most in life, the things we think will set us free, are not the thing we need.”

“Linda was nine then, as I was, but we were in love...it had all the shadings and complexities of mature adult love and maybe more, because there were not yet words for it, and because it was not yet fixed to comparisons or chronologies or the ways by which adults measure such things...I just loved her. Even then, at nine years old, I wanted to live inside her body. I wanted to melt into her bones -- that kind of love.”

“Maybe I don't deserve to ask you this, but I'm going to anyway. I want another chance. I want us to be together, with nothing in between us. No need, no pain, hurt, fear. I want us together because we want to be. Because we love each other. I'll never leave you again.”

“That was what I wanted, but I don't need it to be gone. I can love you and I can love life and bear the pain all at the same time. I think the pain might even make the rest better, the way a good setting can make a diamond look better.”