Every life I start with her, my original sin. I know myself through her.

They needed to grieve alone was what Tibby's dad said. Lena wondered if really there was any choice in that. Everyone grieved alone.

I agree that a love of reading is a great gift for a parent to pass on to his or her child.

Maybe, sometimes, it's easier to be mad at the people you trust because you know they'll always love you, no matter what.

Lena knew she had spent too much of her life in a state of passive dread, just waiting for something bad to happen. In a life like that, relief was as close as you got to happiness.

Maybe you think you’ll be entitled to more happiness later by forgoing all of it now, but it doesn’t work that way. Happiness takes as much practice as unhappiness does. It’s by living that you live more. By waiting you wait more. Every waiting day makes your life a little less. Every lonely day makes you a little smaller. Every day you put off your life makes you less capable of living it.

Do you have any idea how much I've loved you?