Don't pay back in kind, pay back in kindness. If someone does wrong by you, do right by them.

Not everyone understands how you can spin two lassos at the same time, one of hope and one of grief.

I knew her well enough to understand that when Delia pushed you away, it was her way of making sure she didn't get shoved first.

How do you know that you are not part of a book? That someone's not reading your story right now?

Into the silence rips a sound that makes me let go of Max's hand and cover my ears. It is like the strafe of a bullet, nails on a chalkboard, promises being broken. It's a note I have never heard - this chord of pure pain - and it takes a moment to realize it is coming from me.

If you end your story, it's a static work of art, a finite circle. But if you don't, it belongs to anyone's imagination. It stays alive forever.

It was one thing to make a mistake; it was another thing to keep making it. I knew what happened when you let yourself get close to someone, when you started to believe they loved you: you'd be disappointed. Depend on someone, and you might as well admit you're going to be crushed, because when you really needed them, they wouldn't be there. Either that, or you'd confide in them and you added to their problems. All you ever really had was yourself, and that sort of sucked if you were less than reliable.