Sometimes to get what you want the most, you have to do what you want the least.

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

The best way to prevent a heartache was to cushion the coming blow.

Peter curled his hands into fists at his sides. 'Kiss me,' he said. She leaned towards him slowly, until her face was too close to be in focus. Her hair fell over Peter's shoulder like a curtain and her eyes closed. She smelled like autumn-like apple cider and slanting sun and the snap of the coming cold. He felt his heart scrambling, caught inside the confines of his own body. Josie's lips landed just on the edge of his, almost his cheek and not quite his mouth. 'I'm glad I wasn't stuck in here alone,' she said shyly, and he tasted the words, sweet as mint on her breath.

Just because it's fiction doesn't mean it's any less true.

i'm sure i'm worth a lot more dead than alive

parenting isn't a noun but a verb--an ongoing process instead of an accomplishment. And that no matter how many years you put into the job, the learning curve is, well, fairly flat.