"...We are all sorry when loss comes for us. The test of our character comes not in how many tears we shed but in how we act after those tears have dried."

"Arin, you’re not listening. You’re not thinking clearly.”“You’re right. I haven’t been thinking clearly, not for a long time. But I understand now.” Arin pushed his tiles away. His winning hand scattered out of line. “You have changed, Kestrel. I don’t know who you are anymore. And I don’t want to."

"You may give up your big dream and that is very hard! If necessary, give it up but then create a new one! Never live without big dreams because they will keep you alive in life!"

"I have a big hole in my heart,' I said. 'But it'll close over.'I don't want to sound all Dr. Phil,' she said. 'But don't let the scab seal the pain in, okay?'That's good advice,' I said. 'I hope I can manage it."

"She turned off all the lights in the duplex and peered out the windows, moving from one room to the next to see if she could catch sight of the a black sedan. Security lights and streetlights in her complex cast a strange orange glow on the misty snow. It looked like the perfect night for a murder."

"If you aren’t ready, you spend your whole life perseverating on that one situation, getting it wrong time and again. I like to think I am a woman who learns her lesson, but the trick is that you can only ever understand your life backwards, but you live it forward."