Even the most pragmatic person fell victim at times to a longing for something other.

There’s something about hospital walls; though only made of bricks and plaster, when you’re inside them the noise, the reality of the teeming city beyond, disappears; it’s just outside the door, but it might as well be a magical land far, far away.

... people who'd led dull and blameless lives did not give thanks for second chances.

. . . companions were to be valued, wherever one found them.

I've heard it said that children born to stressful times never shake the air of woe . . . .

You'll beat this. I know it doesn't feel like it, but you will. You're a survivor." "I don't want to survive it." "I know that, too," Nell had said. "And it's fair enough. But sometimes we don't have a choice.

Adults weren’t supposed to understand their children and you were doing something wrong if they did.