“Well, then, say you’re staying.” Derry blinked against the moist gleam in his eyes. “Did I not just say it’s where you belong, you great damn fool—” He choked off the sentence as he smothered Ez in a fierce hug and kissed his cheek. Ezra hugged him back and wheezed out an agreement to stay put. I couldn’t help marveling at the sight; it was something rare in my own time, fearless physical affection between guys. In trying to label each other and the whole world, we’d lost something precious. ”

“A teasing response came to my lips and I swallowed it back. His eyes were gleaming with the tears he hadn’t so far shed. I couldn’t brush off a reaction like that. “I hated to do it that way. He’s your father and should love you unconditionally. If he can’t do that, at the very least he owes you the simple respect to let you live your life as you want to live it. We all owe that to each other.”

“Jack hadn’t thought of love as a promise before—a promise that, even when the world was falling down around him, would stay kept. But without Sutton saying a word, he knew that there would be comfort when he couldn’t sleep tonight. And tomorrow and the day after, there would be a home to go to, even if it was no more than a pair of arms around him and a head tucked close to his in the darkness.”

“I don’t stay anywhere. I visit. I observe. I leave. I don’t ever stay.”I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with this information. Tell him to leave? Tell him to stay? But I don’t have time to consider any other alternatives, because he scoots in closer and brings his hands to my face, and I fall back into the bookcase as he kisses me with this intensity—like he wants to be here, and if he kisses me just long enough, deeply enough, none of what he just said will actually be true.”

“Yawning, I stumbled off the trolley after him and tried to get out of the way of people rushing aboard. Apparently manners weren' t a thing of the past. They' d never existed at all.”

“You’re going to have to work on your negativity though.”“Better negativity than hubris.”“What do you mean?”“If I said I couldn’t have failed, it’s like saying the Titanic was unsinkable. I would fail.” - Away from the Spotlight ”

“It was great seeing Annie again. I realised what a terrific person she was and how fun it was just knowing her. And I thought of that old joke, you know. The guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Doc, my brother's crazy. He thinks he's a chicken." and the doctor says, "well, why don't you turn him in?" and the guy says, "I would, but o need the eggs." Well, I guess that's pretty much now how I feel about relationships. You know, they're totally irrational and crazy and absurd and, but, err, I guess we keep going through it because most of us need the eggs.”