It was funny how dad was more honest in a book that anyone in the world could pick up and read than he could be talking to me. Or maybe it was sad. One or the other. Sometimes it’s hard to tell.

You can't avoid orphan stories, child. Every story is an orphan story. We are all orphaned sooner or later.

We aren't the things we collect, acquire, read. We are, for as long as we are here, only love. The things we loved. The people we loved. And these, I think these really do live on.

Let's stay young forever. Young, stupid, and pretty. Sounds like a plan, don't you think?

There is no difference in quality between a life lived forward and a life lived backwards, she thinks. She had come to love this backward life. It was, after all, the only life she had.

"I accept your condemnation," I said.

I did learn something about insanity while I was down there. People go crazy, not because they are crazy, but because it's the best available option at the time.