I looked at the cards in my hand, the queen of hearts nestled between the king of clubs and the king of spades. No wonder she was smiling.

Bess had become the ocean, always breaking against the rocks but never staying broken. Her love was the ocean, too, endless and always changing, yet forever the same.

It was not a happy ending of the sort in fairy tales, but it was the only one we had.

Sometimes grief is a comfort we grant ourselves because it's less terrifying than trying for joy.

If you're lucky, the friends you make when you're sixteen stay with you for the rest of your life. If you're smart, you know when it's time to let them go.

I was trying to replace something I'd come to care about very much with something pretending to be as important.

When everything changes we learn who we really are. What’s really important. What we want most. We discover the truth in moments of disarray.