“The sun had set, but a faint pastel haze lingered in the mid-summer sky.”

“but you’ve fallen for someone who will never be able to be brave enough to fall for you”

“you're not in love you're in pain and there's nothing romantic or loving about that”

“If I throw out a boathook from the boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God.1”

“Lack of entitlement drives small nation’s success: they expect to adapt to outside forces, so they do.”

“Human beings like to see themselves reflected in clouded mirrors.”

“You're cool because you're yourself—gleefully, recklessly, one hundred percent yourself. And if that isn't cool, then fuck. I don't know what is.”

“I was taught to be queen by Margaret of Anjou, and perhaps I have taught you how to be queen in turn. This is fortune’s wheel indeed." With my forefinger I draw a circle in the air, the sign of fortune’s wheel. "You can go very high and you can sink very low, but you can rarely turn the wheel at your own bidding.”