How could I have been so stupid to ignore everything I’d had in my life? The color red alone was worth kingdoms.

I heard a sigh, as though the books were breathing. I felt that this was where I belonged. This was where I lived.

I think we are bound to, and by, nature. We may want to deny this connection and try to believe we control the external world, but every time there's a snowstorm or drought, we know our fate is tied to the world around us

I never even believed in happiness. I didn't think it existed. Now look at me. I'm ready to believe in just about anything.

You can never tell about a person by guessing...that's why language was invented. Otherwise, we'd all be like dogs, sniffing each other to find out where we stood.

He started to look at me in a manner I recognized: it was the way I looked at a new book, one I had never read before, one that surprised me with all it had to say.

...and so many orchards circled the village that on some crisp October afternoons the whole wold smelled like pie.