“I watch life trickle from the bullet wound of a sixteen-year-old "example" and marvel how things weak, even words, will turn vicious and merciless to gain power,despite reason or history”

“For years I feared the opening of every elevator, half-convinced that from the opened doors would come a bullet, for me, shot by a man in a tan trenchcoat. I have no idea why I feared this, expected it to happen. I even knew how I would react to this bullet coming from the elevator door, what word I would say. That word was: Finally.”

“But you were only sixteen and not far off from the truth, as only sixteen-year-olds can be.”

“It hurts," Nellie said."I know," Reagan said. "No pain, no gain.""Do you think they made that expression up for bullet wounds?”

“Stupid Sixteen year old kid falling from the sky! I'm late!”

“Maybe that was how it was with all first loves. They own a little piece of your heart, always. Conrad at twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, even seventeen years old.”