“We were both smiling, in that bittersweet way one does when imagining something the heart longs for and the head would dread.”

“The death of Nighteyes gutted me. I walked wounded through my life in the days that followed, unaware of just how mutilated I was. I was like the man who complains of the itching of his severed leg...”

“Strange, how being left out of a secret always feels like a betrayal of trust.”

“To be part of a family, or any community, is to have duties and responsibility, to be bound by the rules of that group.”

“His absence seemed a solid thing, a burden I must carry in addition to my grief... Yet I knew I would continue to live. Sometimes that knowledge seemed the worst part of my loss.”

“Still I promise myself, "Next time I will do better" in the all-too-human conceit that I will always be offered a "next time.”

“once sailed neither the ship nor the shore ever remains the same again.”

“We are not trapped or locked up in these bones. No, no. We are free to change. And love changes us. And if we can love one another, we can break open the sky.”

“One day spent with someone you love can change everything.”

“The difference between what you expect and what you get is the problem.”

“There are people who are generic. They make generic responses and they expect generic answers. They live inside a box and they think people who don't fit into their box are weird. But I'll tell you...”

“Don't let your luggage define your travels, each life unravels differently.”

“Weakness is acceptable, forgivable, around family. But not when lives and wars hang in the balance.”

“Weakness is acceptable, forgivable, around family. But not when lives and wars hang in the balance.”