Beliefs are the roads we take to our dreams. Believe you can do something-or believe you can't-and you'll be right everytime.

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.

I’d much rather pretend I’m somewhere else, and any time I open the pages of a book, that happens.

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.

You can argue that it's a different world now than the one when Matthew Shepard was killed, but there is a subtle difference between tolerance and acceptance. It's the distance between moving into the cul-de-sac and having your next door neighbor trust you to keep an eye on her preschool daughter for a few minutes while she runs out to the post office. It's the chasm between being invited to a colleague's wedding with your same-sex partner and being able to slow-dance without the other guests whispering.

if there isn’t a them, there can’t be an us.

A heroin-thin boy with enough rings in his eyebrows to resemble a shower curtain rod.