“His dad had told him many times that the definition of a real man is one who cries without shame, reads poetry with his heart, feels opera in his soul, and does what’s necessary to defend a woman.”

“We always think there's enough time to do things with other people. Time to say things to them. And then something happens and then we stand there holding on to words like 'if'.”

“Books are the mile markers of my life. Some people have family photos or home movies to record their past. I have books. Characters. For as long as I can remember, books have been my safe place.”

“But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life. Don't you do the same?”

“A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.”

“I find lateness exceptionally rude; it’s so disrespectful, implying unambiguously that you consider yourself and your own time to be so much more valuable than the other person’s.”

“President Wilson says a leader must treat public opinion the way a sailor deals with the wind, using it to blow the ship in one direction or another, but never trying to go directly against it.”

“Why was it, Lloyd wondered, that the people who wanted to destroy everything good about their country were the quickest to wave the national flag?”

“A man hates the person he has wronged, paradoxically. I think it’s because the victim is a perpetual reminder that he behaved shamefully.”

“But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life. Don't you do the same?”

“If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.”

“She loved him because he had brought her back to life. She had been like a caterpillar in a cocoon, and he had drawn her out and shown her that she was a butterfly.”

“Your integrity is like a sword, he would say: you shouldn't wave it until you're about to put it to the test.”

“Trials rarely found men not guilty. The general view was that if a man were innocent he would not have got into trouble in the first place.” 

“Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.”

“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”

“Memories are dangerous things. You turn them over and over, until you know every touch and corner, but still you'll find an edge to cut you.”

“Are you kidding? That guy was a mystery wrapped in an enigma and crudely stapled to a ticking fucking time bomb. He was either going to hit somebody or start a blog.”

“You don’t win battles with hate. Anger and hate can make you brave, make you strong, but they also make you stupid. You end up tripping over your own two feet.”

“You should try not to talk so much, friend. You'll sound far less stupid that way."

“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.”

“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”

"Before she became the Girl from Nowhere - the One Who Walked In, the First and Last and Only, who lived a thousand years - she was just a little girl in Iowa, named Amy. Amy Harper Bellafonte.”

“As long as we remember a person, they're not really gone. Their thoughts, their feelings, their memories, they become a part of us.”

“All his life he had wanted to be known by just one person. That’s what love was, he decided. Love was being known.”

“The truth is the truth, the only prize worth having. If you deny it, you’re only showing that you’re unworthy of it.”

“Heroes are heroes because they are heroic in behavior, not because they won or lost.”

“Missing a train is only painful if you run after it! Likewise, not matching the idea of success others expect from you is only painful if that’s what you are seeking.”

“The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”

“Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good.”