“Everybody has a story, Alison," he said. "Everybody has things they need to hide--sometimes even from themselves.”

“I caught Faraday's face between my hands and broke off the kiss, breathless. "I've just thought of something," I said."Something we haven't tried.""There's a lot of things we haven't tried," he said, "but I'm going to refrain from the obvious, and assume you're talking about the wormhole. What is it?”

“I'm just a little cold," said Knife, pulling the blanket closer about her shoulders.Paul wrapped his free arm around her. "It's all right," he said. "I've got you.""Yes," said Knife, smiling up at him. "You have.”

“Once upon a time there was a girl who was special. This is not her story. Unless you count the part where I killed her.”

“I sensed that not only the grand movements of the cosmos, but everything that had happened in my life, was a part of that song. Even the hurts that seemed most senseless, the mistakes I would have done anything to erase—nothing could make those things good, but good could still come out of them all the same, and in the end the oratorio would be no less beautiful for it.I realized then that even though I was a tiny speck in an infinite cosmos, a blip on the timeline of eternity, I was not without purpose. And as long as I had a part in the music of the spheres, even if it was only a single grace note, I was not worthless. Nor was I alone.”

“I realized then that even though I was a tiny speck in an infinite cosmos, a blip on the timeline of eternity, I was not without purpose.”

“But there were worse things than disappointment, and I'd lived through several of them already.”