“And I shall watch the ferry boats, and they'll get high, On a bluer ocean against tomorrow's sky,And I will never grow so old again,And I will walk and talk, in gardens all wet with rain.- Sweet Thing”

“And I will stroll the merry wayAnd jump the hedges firstAnd I will drink the clearClean water for to quench my thirstAnd I shall watch the ferry-boatsAnd they'll get highOn a bluer oceanAgainst tomorrows skyAnd I will never grow so old againAnd I will walk and talkIn gardens all wet with rainOh sweet thing, sweet thingMy, my, my, my, my sweet thingAnd I shall drive my chariotDown your streets and cryHey, it's me, I'm dynamiteAnd I don't know whyAnd you shall take me stronglyIn your arms againAnd I will not rememberThat I even felt the pain.We shall walk and talkIn gardens all misty and wet with rainAnd I will never, never, neverGrow so old again.Oh sweet thing, sweet thingMy, my, my, my, my sweet thingAnd I will raise my hand upInto the night time skyAnd count the starsThat's shining in your eyeJust to dig it all an not to wonderThat's just fineAnd I'll be satisfiedNot to read in between the linesAnd I will walk and talkIn gardens all wet with rainAnd I will never, ever, ever, everGrow so old again.Oh sweet thing, sweet thingSugar-baby with your champagne eyesAnd your saint-like smile....- Sweet Thing”

“We didn't talk about problems, or parents, or automobiles, or ambitions. We talked about life....And the sea was there, forty feet away and getting closer, and the sky over the sea, and the sun going down the sky. And it was cold, and it was the high point of my life. I'd had high points before.Once at night walking in the park in the rain in autumn.Once out in the desert, under the stars, when I turned into the earth turning on its axis. Sometimes thinking, just thinking things through.But always alone. By myself.This time I was not alone. I was on the high mountain with a friend. There is nothing, there is nothing that beats that. If it never happens again in my life, still I can say I was there once.”

“He talks softly, patiently, as I sit on the window ledge and watch boats with colorful triangles for sails scratch the ocean.”

“I missed the future. Obviously I knew even before his recurrence that I'd never grow old with Augustus Waters. But thinking about Lidewij and her boyfriend, I felt robbed. I would probably never again see the ocean from thirty thousand feet above, so far up that you can't make out the waves or any boats, so that the ocean is a great and endless monolith. I could imagine it. I could remember it. But I couldn't see it again, and it occurred to me that the voracious ambition of humans is never sated by dreams coming true, because there is always the thought that everything might be done better and again.”

“I get to live forever," he repeated. Luce was still lost, but he kept talking, a stream of words pouring out of his mouth. "I get to live, and to watch babies being born, and grow up, and fall in love. I watch them have babies of their own and grow old. I watch them die. I am condemned, Luce, to watch it all over again and again. Everyone but you." His eyes were glassy. His voice dropped to a whisper. "You don't get to fall in love--""But...," she whispered back. "I've...fallen in love.”