“Age had nothing to do with how well my brain worked.”

“It was a thing that could not be articulated or explained. It merely was, like the sunrise or a sheer and sudden drop to the giant water that had stolen my breath, where the land ended in the ruins...”

“Perhaps that was the point; life, if you did it right, meant learning and changing. If you didn't, you died- or stopped growing - which amounted to more or less the same thing. So I would slide in ...”

“I missed you." I didn't mean to tell him so, even if it was true. Admitting need felt like weakness; it demonstrated dependence and vulnerability.”

“Our souls are always looking for love, and hearts wait to treasure it.”

“His gut was stitched up good and tight, but that didnt prevent it from flopping. He wiped his damp palms on the legs of his jeans and stood up shakily, leaning heavily on his cane.He called himself...”

“Never fall in love?""Always," said the count. "I am always in love.”

“There used to be days that I thought I was okay, or at least that I was going to be. We'd be hanging out somewhere and everything would just fit right and I would think 'it will be okay if it can j...”

“I want to try with someone who loves me enough to try with me. I want to grow old looking at the same face every morning. I want to grow old looking at the same face every night at the dinner table...”

“Hes dozed off again, but I kiss him awake, which seems to startle him. Then he smiles as if hed be happy to lie there gazing at me forever.”

“Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around. You tell them things that youve never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you sa...”

“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there i...”