That was the way love was, invisible, there whether or not you wanted to see it or admit to it.

Weapons are kept from women, but such a naming suggests that perhaps men fear our talents in war as well as our desire for peace.

Outside, the September air was enticingly fragrant, yellow with pollen and rich, lemony sunlight.

Good fortune can take forever to get to you, but as it turns out, sorrow is as quick as a shot.

When the cold comes to New England it arrives in sheets of sleet and ice. In December, the wind wraps itself around bare trees and twists in between husbands and wives asleep in their beds. It shakes the shingles from the roofs and sifts through cracks in the plaster. The only green things left are the holly bushes and the old boxwood hedges in the village, and these are often painted white with snow. Chipmunks and weasels come to nest in basements and barns; owls find their way into attics. At night,the dark is blue and bluer still, as sapphire of night.

She didn't like being twelve. It felt like someplace between who she'd been and who she was about to be. It felt like no place at all.

He was in love, and people in that condition did stupid, unfathomable things. They were all flawed, every single one.