“If it's true love, then it will abide. If it was a fleeting crush, then it will turn to dust. Either way, the truth will out.”

“See that's what people don't get about food. It's never the food, it's the love that goes into making it. That's what's important.”

“Like the garlic mustard in my garden and the roses on my fence, love has a funny way of blooming after years of being buried.”

“In fiction, I searched for my favorite authors, women I have trusted to reassure me than not all teenage guys are total ditwads, that the archetype of the noble cute hero who devotes himself to the girl he loves has not gone the way of the rotary phone. That all I had to do was be myself (smart, hardworking, funny) and be patient and kind and he and I would find each other.As Bea would say, this why they call it fiction.”

“Love doesn't go anywhere when you die, you know. The person passes on, the body withers, but love, it survives.”

“Sometimes if you wait too long, it's too late.”

“Risk is the universe's way of pushing us to become more than what we are. Risk is faith at the edge. Risk is the pulsating nature of life.”