“Well, it's simple to love someone," she said. "But it's hard to know when you need to say it out loud.”

“Einstein says common sense is just habit of thought. It's how we're used to thinking about things, but a lot of the time it just gets in the way.' 'In the way of what?' 'In the way of what's true.”

“What's the burn scale?”

“And when the veil lifts, we can see the world as it really is, just for those few seconds before it settles down again. We see all the beauty, and cruelty, and sadness, and love.”

“[she used to say that] each of us has a veil between ourselves and the rest of the world like a bride wears on her wedding dayexcept this kind of veil is invisible. we walk around happily with the...”

“We have lunch at ten-forty-five, Colin said. A stupidly early lunch. At our school, the older you get, the stupider your lunch period.”

“In a universe where all life is in movement, where ever fact seen in perspective is totally engaging, we impose stillness on lively young bodies, distort reality to dullness, make action drudgery. ...”

“If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter. ”

“When you're a kid all you know is that your dad puts on his suit or overalls and vanishes from your life until nightfall. Sometimes my pops came back exhausted and scarlet-eyed, as if he'd been eng...”

“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.”

“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”

“If I am going to be drownedif I am going to be drownedif I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and t...”

“I'm an Earth ecstatic, and my creed is simple: All life is sacred, life loves life, and we are capable of improving our behavior toward one another. As basic as that is, for me it's also tonic and ...”