I can almost see what Gabriel meant when he asked, 'What has the free world got that you can’t get here?' Almost. Freedom, Gabriel. That’s what you can’t get here.

Because even if the lie is beautiful, the truth is what you face in the end.

There's a world out there that nobody has bothered to promise her.

Forget who you are and what you think is there, and you'll discover things that don't exist to be known.

You’re insane, you know that?” he says. “It’s the only thing keeping me afloat,” I say.

I wish I had a memory of that first violent shove, the shock of cold air, the sting of oxygen into new lungs. Everyone should remember being born. It doesn't seem fair that we only remember dying.

What have you done? What have you given up?' So many things, Cecily. More than you know.