“If someone says there's a portal to hell under some rocks, you bet your ass I'm going to move them.”

“Living on through loss seems by contrast as bad or worse; it means experiencing environmental deterioration, steady decline in human well-being, and increasing constraint on future human action consciously and slowly while realizing that they are likely to continue for generations after one is gone.”

“You know how you can think you know someone or think you know them but maybe you only know them one way?" He sneaks a glance at me and I notice that his cheeks are red in the moonlight. "Maybe you know someone as your little sister's friend," he says. "And then maybe something shifts. Maybe one day you hear them say something unexpected. Or hear the way they laugh and then suddenly you see them all over again. Like this time it's different. This time maybe you see them as ..." He pauses. "Beautiful," he finishes. Catcher leans in closer. "Wonderful and funny.”

“It's like if someone had a loaded gun in your face. I don't know how else to describe how it felt to try to talk to my father. Even on a good day. If someone always has a loaded gun in your face, you weigh every word before you say it. You only dare say it if it might save you. But you're never sure, so there's this tendency to freeze. Say nothing at all.”

“I was never in any danger, Cal." Cora's tone was patient."So you say.But you admitted that the heavy snow brought down a tree right beside your tent. You could be lying out there right now, pinned and gravely wounded,and we wouldn't have a clue.""Cal,I always have my cell phone under my pillow.""A lot of good that would do if you were crushed beneath a tree. The calendar may say it's springtime, but somebody forgot to tell Mother Nature. If it isn't a tree falling,it could be an avalanche. And there you are, all alone in the wilderness,at the mercy of any number of dangers."Cora gave a long,deep sigh. "You know I'm not going to give up my excursions. It's where I do my best work.I love it too much to ever stop.""And I'm not going to stop worrying. I've been doing it too long.""Now,children," Jesse said with a laugh. "There will be no fighting at the table.”

“... If you never try to see [someone] for who they are, then you don't love them enough.”

“-you can think you know someone and then they say something or do something and suddenly everything changes.”