“He knew that he’d known her for less than a week, but now that she was gone he was continually probing his feelings for her, the way he might probe a sore tooth with his tongue, engaging her in imaginary conversations, imagining her saying such delightful things.”

“He doesn't believe in talking too much about art, especially while you're looking at it. The pressure to appreciate is the great enemy of actual enjoyment. Most people don't know what they like because they feel obligated to like so many different things. They feel they're supposed to be overwhelmed, so instead of looking, they spend their time thinking up something to say, something intelligent, or at least clever.”

“Death was a lens that would reveal things as they really were: what was important would assume its true importance what was unimportant would recede into the shadows. ”

“Sometimes pain is God’s megaphone, his only way to get our attention.”

“The only meaning our lives have is the meaning we give them.”

“However far back you go you will find all experiences linked by slender threads.”

“Sometimes it takes a little jolt to make us appreciate what we’ve got.”

“Fussing over food was important. It gave a shape to the day: breakfast, lunch, dinner; beginning, middle, end.”

“He knew that he’d known her for less than a week, but now that she was gone he was continually probing his feelings for her, the way he might probe a sore tooth with his tongue, engaging her in imaginary conversations, imagining her saying such delightful things.”

“What to do with the past? There was so much of it.”