“you live through . . . that little piece of time that is yours, but that piece of time is not only your own life, it is the summing-up of all the other lives that are simultaneous with yours. It is, in other words, History, and what you are is an expression of History.”

“If you believe that humans are animals, there can be no such thing as the history of humanity, only the lives of particular humans. If we speak of the history of the species at all, it is only to signify the unknowable sum of these lives. As with other animals, some lives are happy, others wretched. None has a meaning that lies beyond itself.”

“You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.”

“Pieces. A bit for someone here. A bit there. And sometimes they don't add up to anything whole. But you are so busy dancing. Delivering. You don't have time to notice. Or are afraid to notice. And then one day you have to look. And it's true. All of your pieces fill up other people's holes. But they don't fill your own.”

“We are all pieces to a puzzle in each others lives. We have to decide were each person fits and not force them into a spot they don't belong in. Some pieces are beautiful, others are okay. Certain pieces you like more than others, then there are foundation pieces that outline your puzzle. You do have extra pieces that don't belong at all. But when your puzzle is done, you love each person that makes it whole.”

“But nothing is solid and permanent. Our lives are raised on the shakiest foundations. You don't need to read history books to know that. You only have to know the history of your own life.”