dating you would be like a series of unnecessary root canals interspersed with occasional makeout sessions.

As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.

Not to ask the obvious question, but why Alaska?

That's the mystery, isn't it? Is the labyrinth living or dying? Which is he trying to escape---the world or the end of it?

You like someone who can't like you back because unrequited love can be survived in a way that once-requited love cannot.

Colin emphatically pushed the book cover shut when he finished reading. "Did you like it?" His dad asked. "Yup," Colin said. He liked all books, because he liked the mere act of reading, the magic of turning scratches on a page into words inside his head.

So why don't you go home for vacations?' I asked her. I'm just scared of ghosts, Pudge. And home is full of them.