It was not a big smile, not particularly bold or polite or ironic or glib, not asking for anything or offering anything, not stringy or careless, not, in short, like any smile I had ever experienced before. But such a smile! You could burn a hole in the world with that smile.

The average attention span of the modern human being is about half as long as whatever youre trying to tell them.

It's a strange sensation to live inside another person's life, to wonder all the time what he is doing, or thinking or feeling.

I frightened myself. I became the ghost Piper was so scared of.

When you read a book, the neurons in your brain fire overtime, deciding what the characters are wearing, how they're standing, and what it feels like the first time they kiss. No one shows you. The words make suggestions. Your brain paints the pictures.

Every war has turning points and every person too.

This was what happiness felt like - this wondrous, miraculous alternative to dread.