She taught me everything I knew about crawfish and kissing and pink wine and poetry. She made me different.

"And how are you feeling?" asked Patrick."Oh, I'm grand." Augustus Waters smiled with a corner of his mouth. "I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up, my friend."

I think it's crazy, crazy that book tours lose so much money. They shouldn't. Book tours should be part of what keeps independent bookstores vibrant and profitable.

We had to forgive to survive the labyrinth

All hurt is brain hurt.

That was part of her, and you used to know it. It's like now you only care about the Alaska you made up.

I still think that maybe the "afterlife" is just something we made up to ease the pain of loss, to make our time in the labyrinth bearable. Maybe we are just matter, and matter gets recycled