I wouldn't want a boy to think I was pretty unless he was the kind of boy who thought I was pretty.

I feel too much. That's what's going on.' 'Do you think one can feel too much? Or just feel in the wrong ways?' 'My insides don't match up with my outsides.' 'Do anyone's insides and outsides match up?' 'I don't know. I'm only me.' 'Maybe that's what a person's personality is: the difference between the inside and outside.' 'But it's worse for me.' 'I wonder if everyone thinks it's worse for him.' 'Probably. But it really is worse for me.

But I knew the truth and that's why I was so sad. Every moment before this one depends on this one. Everything in the history of the world can be proven wrong in one moment.

We all choose things, and we also all choose against things. I want to be the kind of person who chooses for more than chooses against.

I write because I want to end my loneliness. Books make people less alone. That, before and after everything else, is what books do. They show us that conversations are possible across distances.

Your dad didn't die, so I won't be able to explain it to you.

I looked at everyone and wondered where they came from, and who they missed, and what they were sorry for.