Clearly God was in some kind of mood on my birthday.

She suddenly remembered studying the brain in science class- how a steel rod pierced a man's skull, and he opened his mouth to speak Portuguese, a language he'd never studied. Maybe it would be like this, now, for Josie. Maybe her native tongue, from here on in, would be a string of lies.

I tell you this as a cautionary tale: beware of getting what you want. It's bound to disappoint you.

...when people we love make choices, we don't always understand them. But we can go on loving them, just the same. It isn't a matter of comprehension. It's forgiveness.

I wish I could tell him I understand: the higher you raise your hopes, the farther you have to fall.

If you loved someone, really loved them, would you let them go?

This is what it always comes down to, I realized. There are the ones who believe, and the ones who don't, and caught in the space between them are guns.