Maybe happiness was an hourglass already running out, the grains tipping, sifting past each other. Maybe it was a state of mind.

People belong to each other only as long as they both believe. He stopped believing.

Dogs are easy. If their tails are up and their eyes are soft, you're in.

Books could be an incredible adventure. I stayed under my blanket and barely moved, and no one would have guessed how my mind raced and my heart soared with stories.

To marry was to say you believed in the future and in the past, too-that history and tradition and hope could stay knit together to hold you up.

It gave me a sharp kind of sadness to think that no matter how much I loved him and tried to put him back together again, he might stay broken forever.

I preferred to look at the sea, which said nothing and never made you feel alone.