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

Why didn't he say goodbye? I gave myself a bruise. Why didn't he say 'I love you'?

I am not sad, he would repeat to himself over and over, I am not sad. As if he might one day convince himself. Or fool himself. Or convince others -- The only thing worse than being sad is for others to know that you are sad.

I felt suddenly shy. I was not used to shy. I was used to shame. Shyness is when you turn your head away from something you want. Shame is when you turn your head away from something you do not want.

...accepting the compromise of the way we have been, the way we are, and the way we will likely be...may we live together in unwavering love and good health, amen.

The more you love someone, he came to think, the harder it is to tell them. It surprised him that strangers didn't stop each other on the street to say I love you.

Time was passing like a hand waving from a train that I wanted to be on.