“Somehow, some way, she had to be alive. A world without her carefree laughter didn't seem worth living in. A world that couldn't see her lovely smile wasn't worth saving.”

“All of the heartache, the anger, the fear that this was as good as it was ever going to get, was worth it. Here, he could see her eyes and bask in her smiles-even when she wasn't smiling for him. Every day was worth the pain.”

“He couldn't live a life worth saving, and he couldn't save a life worth living.”

“That was the heart of the difference, she thought. In her world she had learned to be . Other people seemed to gain their sense of identity and worth from doing. ”

“So she had to satisfy herself with the idea of love - loving the loving of things whose existence she didn't care at all about. Love itself became the object of her love. She loved herself in love, she loved loving love, as love loves loving, and was able, in that way, to reconcile herself with a world that fell so short of what she would have hoped for. It was not the world that was the great and saving lie, but her willingness to make it beautiful and fair, to live a once-removed life, in a world once-removed from the one in which everyone else seemed to exist.”

“A world without dragons is a world not worth living in.”