“She walked on, comforted by the surf, by the one perpetual moment of beach-time, the now-and-always of it.”

“If pinpointing God's presence were really that simple, then he supposed the beaches would be more crowded in the mornings. They would be filled with people on their own quests, instead of people jogging or walking their dogs or fishing in the surf.”

“When we’re young, and we dream of love and fulfillment, we think perhaps of moon-drenched Parisian nights or walks along the beach at sundown. No one tells us that the greatest moments of a lifetime are fleeting, unplanned and nearly always catch us off guard.”

“It was something they'd done a thousand times before. If Jamie went surfing with a mate and paddled in first, he always took time for that final wave. And there was something so familiar in the ritual that for a moment he felt like everything was right.He felt forgiven.”

“She now knew that the death she feared might not be a physical one, that it could be death of the will, the soul, the mind, the laws, and thus not death, but a perpetual dying.”

“From where I live now I can walk to the beach, if I have about three weeks.”