When Mum and Dad died, I thought I was going to die too. I was sure of it. But then I thought, what if I was already dead? But nobody else knew, and I was walking around dead. But everybody could see and hear me. That was dreadful. It only felt like dying because, actually, I was still alive. You have to be to feel that way. I wasn’t dead. I was just really, really sad.
To truly love another person is to accept that the work of loving them is worth the pain of losing them.
People do, don’t they? Mix up love and possession. I don’t think that should be possible. I mean, they’re opposites, really. Love and ownership.[to Jamie]
We can’t count on the past. We think we have it trapped in our memories, but memories fade. We could fade at any time.
There’s a difference between feeling good and feeling alive. The two aren’t always the same.
Sometimes, right can seem wrong, and wrong can seem right. But that’s the difference between children and adults. Seeing the big picture.[to Miles]
Nothing holds, and all things change, given time. Change does not often announce itself. It does not trumpet its arrival. No, change is emergent. By the time one realizes it has arrived, it has already set its teeth.
Dead doesn’t mean gone.
All things fade. All things. Flesh, stone, even stars themselves. Time takes all things. It is the way of the world. The past recedes, memories fade, and so, true, does the spirit. Everything yields to time, even the soul.
Your parents loved you so, so much that, in a way, they’ll always be here.
The kids like us, like you and me and Flora, we’re special. We grow up faster than other kids. And even more special, we really get to choose the grown-ups that we keep in our life.[to Miles]
I’m a lot braver than people think.[to Miles]
