“She also understood there was a hole in her heart where her son should be, that she was a wicked, selfish woman for wishing him back.”

“She was no stripper with a heart of gold, that was for sure. A heart of steel, more like.”

“Its not like I planned it. I never woke up from some rosy dream and said, Okay, world, today Im gonna spaz.”

“We didnt want to admit it then, but we were friends. Best friends.”

“A woman brings so much more to the world than birth, for she can birth discovery, intelligence, invention, art, just as well as any man.”

“Using ones beauty was the only way a smart girl could get by, at least thats how it was back then, though even for a smart girl there were really only three professions. You could be a nurse or a t...”

“When you close your eyes and you feel the color, that is when you know that love has entered your heart.”

“If someone is really close with you, your getting upset or them getting upset is okay, and they dont change because of it. Its just part of the relationship. It happens. You deal with it.”

“Perhaps you are just close to what you have been waiting for all along and ideas start formulating in your mind and advising you to "give up". Tell them "not me".”

“Those whom we most love are often the most alien to us.”

“He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began.”

“Ivan tells Anna: "I used to imagine that being embraced by a woman . . . as something so wonderful that it would make me forget everthing . . . [But] happiness, it turns out, will be to share with ...”

“work at our responsibility as parents as if everything in life counted on it, because in fact everything in life does count on it.”

“Happiness [is] only real when shared”

“That's what people do who love you. They put their arms around you and love you when you're not so lovable.”