I always work in a room where there's no Internet to keep from being distracted so easily.

The television replaced the sound of conversation that was missing from my grandparents' lives.

Every letter was a love letter. Of course, as love letters went, this one could have been better. It was not very promising, for instance, that Madeleine claimed not to want to see him for the next half-century.

All of a sudden America wasn't about hamburgers and hot rods anymore. It was about the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock. It was about something that had happened for two minutes four hundred years ago, instead of everything that had happened since. Instead of everything that was happening now!

I know that attaching memories to books may be going out of the world, but while it lasts, it's a strong record of your life.

A girl's not a watermelon you plug a hole in to see if it's sweet.

But, like anyone in love, Madeleine believed that her own relationship was different from every other relationship, immune from typical problems.