“Fate has a way of letting us know when we have screwed up by turning everything into an uphill battle.”

“it wasn't uncommon... that such a girl might die young, but this girl had stayed alive long enough to make her mark, to take up residence in his imagination. to haunt him. now, through her, he mourns and celebrates everything that life has denied him, all the beauty, all the magic. this is how it happens: the dead go away into their solitude, but the young dead stay with us, they color our dreams, they make us wonder about ourselves, that we should be so unlucky, or clumsy, or so downright ordinary as to carry on without them.”

“When I was up she taught me to recognize the feeling and savor it. “Remember how good you feel now,” she said. “There will be times later on when everything will seem bleak. I don’t want to minimize the grim and harsh times. I know how bad you feel then. But they won’t last forever. Capture the good moments,” she said.”

“It doesn't pay to try, all the smart girls know why.”

“You must have faith in yourself before you have faith in anyone else.”

“I fear one day I'll meet God, he'll sneeze and I won't know what to say”

“In the absence of evidence to the contrary, always assume you have the upper hand.”