I don't want to try to live up to someone who's created something so incredible. I'm just trying to focus on what I'm doing and what I do best. It's sometimes hard to focus in and only think about my books rather than how they measure up to someone else's.

The gun goes off. I fall.

It's strange how time can make a place shrink, make its strangeness ordinary.

Before she got here everything had stalled inside me, and every morning I was just moving toward nighttime.

All I can do is stand still- I feel like if I just stand still, I can stop it from being true, I can pretend that everything is all right.

It is more important for you to be safe than right, for the time being. Understand? (...) But please, when you see an opportunity...ruin them

Fear doesn't shut you down; it wakes you up. I've seen it. It's fascinating." He releases me but doesn't pull away, his hand grazing my jaw, my neck. "Sometimes I just...want to see it again. Want to see you awake.