Nobody home but She for Whom I Am the World. Can't go on like this, can't keep doing it.- Jericho Barrons

I looked from one to the other, and realized that Barrons and my dad were having one of those wordless conversations he and I have from time to time. Though the language was, by nature, foreign to me, I grew up in the Deep South where a man’s ego is roughly the size of his pickup truck, and women get an early and interesting education in the not-so-subtle roar of testosterone.

I kept it to remind me that although there is evil, there is sometimes beauty and light. You, Jillian. You were always my light.

Dying is overrated. Human sentimentality has twisted it into the ultimate act of love. Biggest load of bullshit in the world. Dying for someone isn't the hard thing. The man that dies escapes. Plain and simple. Game over. End of pain...Try living for someone. Through it all-good, bad, thick, thin, joy, suffering. That's the hard thing.

I hope when I'm ninety-five the only things I want are free: love, family, a good home-cooked meal.

If you're trying to force the story to be a straight up romance, it's going to be weird for you.

Using your own time to make someone else’s life better is, like, the nicest thing you can do for anybody.