“The feel of her body against his was exhilarating, driving all rational thought from his head. “All right, prepareyourself, Claire Brennan.”She looked up at him curiously. “Prepare myself forwhat?”He gazed at her affectionately. “Repeat your mantra, orwhatever it is you do. Because I’m about to kiss you.”

“The feel of her body against his was exhilarating, driving all rational thought from his head. “All right, prepareyourself, Claire Brennan.”She looked up at him curiously. “Prepare myself forwhat?”He gazed at her affectionately. “Repeat your mantra, orwhatever it is you do. Because I’m about to kiss you.”

“To my amazement, miraculously, the lid suddenly loosened and slid all the way open, revealing its hidden cargo: A stack of small paper booklets. Dozens and dozens of them. Booklets made of ordinary sheets of white writing paper, folded in half, and hand-stitched along the spine. Booklets in remarkably pristine condition, all covered in a small, neat handwriting that I instantly recognized. The hair stood up on the back of my neck. I could hardly breathe.”

“Change often brings unimagined opportunity...If there is no struggle, there is no progress. To live in a safe cocoon- I believe that is not truly living. It is stagnation.”

“It was one thing to stay in one place If you were happy and fulfilled- that was simply living the good life. But what if you weren't fulfilled?”

“I believe there is a kind of happiness to be found in every thing in life, in all that is good and pleasing, as well as in that which is sad or poignant.”

“A line from The Picture of Dorian Gray kept running through my head- a line which, I thought, might have been written by the Devil himself:"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.”