"We're all trying to sort out our inner messes.... It's not about the time. It's about how you spend it."

Some joys make you want to rush into them while others make you want to hold off as if happiness were a pool you were testing with your toes

"Miss Dawn's arms were like the branches of the tree that grew up in the middle of her home -- strong and sinewy, ancient and elegant..."

"If there was one thing I had learned ...it was that scientists like to appear creative, and artists like to appear relevant."

"One day, I say in despair, 'This is rough. And he, staring down at me intently says, 'This is war.'"

"Making pies...with the frantic pace at Tippi's, it was more difficult to surrender to the sadness that grabbed her at quiet times."

"Before we enter serious relationships, we don't have to...see our true selves. So the first time you get called out for being annoying..."

“Grief is such a—oh, it is such a solitary thing; It is like sliding down the outside of a really long glass building while nobody sees you"

"...she left her bedroom to find an atmosphere of regret hanging over the house."

"The old house was being renovated. Even from this distance he could see the evidence of it in the yard: piles of timber, a small bonfire...

"A part of me needed to suffer. Suffering is painful and tangible, but something I could curl up with, and I did."

'"Hi Mum," I say. "Leena, hi!" I wince. She's all breezy and faux casual, like she's practiced the greeting before making the call...."

"...perhaps he is one of the dying breed who understand that, if they want bookshops to survive, they have to support them."

"I miss my iPhone! I'll never complain about the autocorrect function again."

All along...he had experienced only the most glancing relationship with his own life..."

“He hated the way every drug...scooped the solidity right out of the world and left it quicksand-textured, cracked...and wavering..."

“Seasons flow in a cycle. Life too, passes through difficult winters. But after any winter, spring will follow.”

"She replies, 'He came out of my body. He's a homosexual. He left his mother with a stranger. I've already got everything I need to know.'"

"...so many hand-knit pink hats...all those people...who wanted better things for women and had made their outrage into a...global event."

“If you’re having a rotten day, go buy yourself an ice cream soda and a new hat.”