I half closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything I'd ever lost since my childhood had washed up, and I was now standing here in front of it, and if I waited long enough, a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across the field and gradually get larger until I'd see it was Tommy, and he'd wave, and maybe even call.

---

Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don’t go along with that. The memories I value most, I don’t ever see them fading.

---

You have to accept that sometimes that's how things happen in this world. People's opinions, their feelings, they go one way, then the other. It just so happens you grew up at a certain point in this process.

---

There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one.

---

You say you’re sure? Sure that you’re in love? How can you know it? You think love is so simple?

---

If you are under the impression you have already perfected yourself, you will never rise to the heights you are no doubt capable of.

---

Indeed — why should I not admit it? — in that moment, my heart was breaking.

---

As a writer, I'm more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.

---

The evening's the best part of the day. You've done your day's work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it.

---

We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.

---