it was possible to grow up in an instant, that you could look down and see the line in the sand dividing your life now from what it used to be.

Dead isn’t angels or ghosts. It’s a physical state of breakdown, a change in all those carbon atoms that create the temporary house of a body so that they can return to their most elemental stage.

See, as much as you want to hold on to the bitter sore memory that someone has left this world, you are still in it

Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult, I've decided, is only a slow sewing shut.

You know how every now and then, you have a moment where your whole life stretches out ahead of you like a forked road, and even as you choose one gritty path you've got your eyes on the other the whole time, certain that you're making a mistake.

May I ask you something?" I say. "Why do you read books, when you could be outside, living a million different adventures every day?" "Because you can always count on a book to stay the same. EVerything else changes when you least expect it," she replies, bitter. "Families split apart, and nothing's forever. In books, you always know what's coming next. There are no surprises.

I think that's probably the most devastating thing - when someone who is larger than life winds up a shadow of themselves in a hospital bed.