Destiny is not something that happens all at once-it's something that happens only in retrospect.

And okay, fair enough, but there is this unwritten contract between author and reader and I think not ending your book kind of violates that contract.

You couldn't be more wrong," I said. "You are buying into the cross-stitched sentiments of your parents' throw pillows. You're arguing that the fragile, rare thing is beautiful simply because it is fragile and rare. But that's a lie, and you know it." "You're a hard person to comfort," Augustus said. "Easy comfort isn't comforting," I said.

I think forever is an incorrect concept.

He'd fought hard, Lida told me, as if there was another way to fight.

Idiotically, it occurred to me that my pink underwear didn’t match my purple bra, as if boys even notice such things.

The funny thing about writing is that whether you're doing well or doing it poorly, it looks the exact same. That's actually one of the main ways that writing is different from ballet dancing.