Sometimes you build up these walls, you build and you build and you build up these walls and you think they’re so strong, but then someone can come along and tip them over with only his fingers, or the weight of his breath.

I was like a chocolate in a box, looking well behaved and perfect in place, all the while harboring a secret center.

It occurred to me then that a lot of life was either about wanting and not having, or having and not wanting.

Love." She looked at me with those blue eyes. "Isn't it astonishing how confused and complicated such a small,simple word is? It attracts so many other things, doesn't it, that stick to it like barnacles on rock...fear, guilt. Need. You can't even see the rock anymore. I imagine love in its purest form is a rare thing.

We're as good at talking ourselves out of fear as into it, aren't we? Maybe better.

Although I love snow, it messes things up terribly around Seattle, with all of our hills. I worry about my loved ones driving.

You could try and understand people, you could read books and understand words and concepts and ideas, but you could never understand enough or have enough knowledge to keep away the surprises that both fate and human beings had in store.