He saw things in a way that others did not, so that a city I had lived in all my life seemed a different place, so that a woman became beautiful with the light on her face.

You know I don’t listen to market gossip,” she began, “but it is hard not to hear it when my daughter’s name is mentioned.

Over his shoulder I saw a star fall. It was me.

We say very little, for we do not need to. We are silent together, each in her own world, knowing the other is just at her back.

That's how fossil hunting is: It takes over, like a hunger, and nothing else matters but what you find. And even when you find it, you still start looking again the next minute, because there might be something even better waiting.

It was not a house where secrets could be kept easily.

I have consistently loved books that I've read when I've been sick in bed.