If the thrill of hunting were in the hunt, or even in the marksmanship, a camera would do just as well.

You need to have a reader's sympathy in order to accomplish anything. It's like at a reading, I find it's better to read something funny than to read something tragic. It just goes over better because you have a finite amount of time with somebody. Of course, in a book, you have a lot of time. But you still do want to make a certain impression right when you begin.

He promised us that everything would be okay. I was a child, but I knew that everything would not be okay. That did not make my father a liar. It made him my father.

You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.

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

It is unrealistic to think you can have an inflexible identity that never has to give or take or make compromises.

[S]o if the device of the person in the ambulance detected the device of the person he loved the most, or the person who loved him the most, and the person in the ambulance was really badly hurt, and might even die, the ambulance could flash GOODBYE! I LOVE YOU! GOODBYE! I LOVE YOU!