I am not a bad person. I am a good person who has lived in a bad time." Alex's grandfather..Everything is Illuminated

We laughed and laughed, together and separately, out loud and silently, we were determined to ignore whatever needed to be ignored, to build a new world from nothing if nothing in our world could be salvaged, it was one of the best days of my life, a day during which I lived my life and didn't think about my life at all.

There is nothing wrong with compromising. Even if you compromise almost everything.

Only now do I understand the war against boredom, the lost cause of empty hours, of empty days and nights.

I am sure people tell you this constantly but if you looked up 'incredibly beautiful' in the dictionary there would be a picture of you.

We had everything to say to each other, but no ways to say it

Just to be a functioning adult in the world, we develop all of these layers of protection. When we see homeless people, we don't cry, even though homeless people probably deserve our tears - you know, it's a horrible thing.