Sometimes we don't know how afraid we are until we've reached a strange door and we don't know what will be on the other side.

Maybe hope isn't the most dangerous thing a person can have. Maybe love is.

When I was 11 or 12, I was really bored with everything on my summer reading list. It was all happy, middle-grade kinds of books. I was getting frustrated, because I liked to read. My mother went to the library and got me a copy of 'The Other Side of Midnight' by Sidney Sheldon. It was my first adult book.

It was a terrible decision, and I confess I'd make it again.

I wonder what it’s like for her, looking so much like a dead girl.

Suddenly the clouds seem high above us. They’re moving over us in an arch, circling the planet. They have seen abysmal oceans and charred, scorched islands. They have seen how we destroyed the world. If I could see everything, as the clouds do, would I swirl around this remaining continent, still so full of color and life and seasons, wanting to protect it? Or would I just laugh at the futility of it all, and meander onward, down the earth’s sloping atmosphere?

Tell freedom I said hello.' 'If I happen to see it, I will.