She surrounded herself with books at work and at home. Her living space was a testament to her first and abiding love with shelves jammed with books tables crowded with them. She saw them not only as knowledge entertainment comfort even sanity but as a kind of artful decoration.

Up to this point your life has pretty much sucked. You’re not responsible for that. But you are responsible for what happens from here on.

He pulled himself out of hard times, dealt with the scars from it, pushed himself to make a mark. A little bit of the wild side there, always. I told myself, oh no, I won't get tangled up with this one. And I said it again, even when I was tangled up.

That was the biggest problem with getting used to someone, she thought. You were lonely when they weren't there.

You can fix anything but a blank page.

There it was, Eve supposed. There was the answer to why people got tangled up with people. Because when you were down, when you were wallowing, someone you mattered to would ask if you were okay.

Don't give up on your own happy-evers.