“And both of them are crying then, caught again in the surprise of their grief. After a year of mourning, they know they will not die of it, but neither expects it to go away. Maybe neither of them would want it to go, because then what would be left?”

“Character is too deep to catch in a single storyline. What really moves us - what makes the great stories, and there aren't so many of them - is the inevitability of character. The destiny. All we see is the arc. We'll never penetrate the secrets of the living, let alone the dead. I've spent my whole life trying to understand people, and all I've learned is that the deeper we look, the greater the mystery. At the core, each person is unknowable. Maybe that's the soul? I have to respect that. The mystery, in fact, is what I've loved the most, in people and in stories as well.”

“If you aren’t nurturing your self, what kind of mother can you be, anyway?”

“Maybe they would look at each other and feel some odd yearning, but neither of them would know why. They would want to stop, but they would be embarrassed, and neither would know what to say. They would go their separate ways. Who knew? Maybe that happened every day to people who'd once loved each other.”

“If he turned his hand into her and began stroking her there, she would wake up smiling and drowsy and ready for him again.They would kiss. Erotically. Her mouth would be so damn enticing, he’d dip into it again and again to gather the taste that was now familiar to him. He would touch his tongue to her nipples, and she’d rub her thumb around the tip of his cock and feel that he was about to burst, and then he’d be inside her, moving.Or maybe not. Maybe he would do something he’d never done with a woman. Maybe he would just… be. [...]No, maybe this time, he would just savor being joined to another person as tightly as two people could be. He would savor being joined with Honor.”

“26 Thought-Provoking Questions:1. if you could own any single object that you don't have now, what would it be?2. if you could have one superpower, what would it be?3. if you could meet anyone in history, who would you choose and what would you ask them?4. if you could add one person to your family, who would it be?5. if you could be best friends with anyone in the world, who would you pick?6. if you could change anything about your face, what would it be7. if you could change anything about your parents, what would it be?8. if you could fast-forward your life, how old would you want to be and why?9. what is the one object you own that matters more to you than anything else?10. what is the one thing in the world that you are most afraid of?11. if you could go to school in a foreign country, which one would you pick?12. if you had the power to drop any course from your curriculum, what would it be?13. if you caught your best friend stealing from you, what would you do?14. if you had a chance to spend a million dollars on anything but yourself, how would you spend it?15. if you could look like anyone you wanted, who would that be?16. if you were a member of the opposite sex, who would you want to look like?17. if you could change your first name, what name would you chose?18. what's the best thing about being a teen?19. what's the worst?20. if someone you like asked you out on a date, but your best friend had a crush on this person, what would you do?21. what is the worst day of the week?22. if you had to change places with one of your friends, who would you chose?23. if you could be any sports hero, who would you like to be?24. what's the one thing you've done in your life that you wish you could do over differently?25. what would you do if you found a dollar in the street? what if you found $100? $10,000?26. if you had a chance to star in any movie, who would you want as a costar?”

“The greatest tragedies were written by the Greeks and Shakespeare...neither knew chocolate.”