"Okeke was trying hard not to think of his two grandsons. But he knew he was now fighting a losing battle. He tried to hum a favourite hymn but the pattering of large rain drops on the roof broke up the tune. His mind immediately returned to the children. How could he shut his door against them? By a curious mental process he imagined them standing, sad and forsaken, under the harsh angry weather—shut out from his house. That night he hardly slept, from remorse—and a vague fear that he might die without making it up to them."

"deeply affected by his father’s grief"

"The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place."

"For an African writing in English is not without its serious setbacks. He often finds himself describing situations or modes of thought which have no direct equivalent in the English way of life. Caught in that situation he can do one of two things. He can try and contain what he wants to say within the limits of conventional English or he can try to push back those limits to accommodate his ideas … I submit that those who can do the work of extending the frontiers of English so as to accommodate African thought-patterns must do it through their mastery of English and not out of innocence."

"found a girl who will suit [him] admirably"

"Proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten."

"When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk."

"We shall all live. We pray for life, children, a good harvest and happiness. You will have what is good for you and I will have what is good for me. Let the kite perch and let the egret perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break."

"Don't disparage the day that still has an hour of light in its hand."

"As the saying goes, the unexamined life is not worth-living."

"My people have a saying which my father often used. A man whose horse is missing will look everywhere even in the roof."

"[W]hatever you are is never enough; you must find a way to accept something, however small, from the other to make you whole and to save you from the mortal sin of righteousness and extremism. (p. 154)"

"The guilty suffers; the sufferer is guilty. As for the righteous, those whose arms are straight, they will always prosper!"

"He was very quiet for a moment. Where are you?"

"I started crying again, my voice ragged. He told me to calm down. He told me it was going to be all right. And then, he told he'd be there soon.”"

"You asked me to go out with you. I know you probably changed your mind. But you should know, the answer was yes. It's always been yes when it comes to you.""

"Mclean? he asked. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, I said, swallowing and looking out my open door, at the ocean. The answer's yes."

"The answer . . . he said slowly."

"Like a blinking cursor on an empty page, it was just the first thing. The beginning of the beginning. But at least it was done."

"It was kind of soothing, these sounds of lives being lived all around me, for better or for worse. And there I was, in the middle of them all, newly reborn and still waiting for mine to begin."

"Despite my dad's assurances I was strangely nervous my stomach tight ever since we'd hung up. Maybe Deb had picked up on this and it was why she'd pretty much talked nonstop since I'd approached her and asked for a ride. I'd barely had time to explain the situation before she had launched into a dozen stories to illustrate the point that Things Happened But People Were Okay in the End."

"I dialed the number slowly, wanting to get it right. Two rings, and he picked up."

"Yes, I said after his hello."

"I felt tears prick my eyes as I looked down at the model again, looking at that girl and boy on the curb. Forever in that place, together."

"I mean, it's not surprising, really. Once you love something, you always love it in some way. You have to. It's, like, part of you for good."

"Two a.m.' He swallowed, then said, "You know. The person you can call at two a.m. and, no matter what, you can count on them. Even if they're asleep or it's cold or you need to be bailed out of jail...they'll come for you. It's like, the highest level of friendship.”"

"I was drowning in broad daylight and no one could tell."

"Your past is always your past. Even if you forget it, it remembers you."

"I felt like I'd been swimming so hard, and the water growing warmer and warmer the closer I got to the top. I wasn't there yet, but now I could see the surface, rippling just beyond my fingers."

"For two hours I'd felt myself stretching tighter and tighter, like a rubber band pulled to the point of snapping. And now, I could feel the smaller, weaker part of myself beginning to fray, tiny bits giving way before the big break."

"It was amazing how you could get so far from where you'd planned, and yet find it was exactly were you needed to be."

"Now I felt like I was drifting, sucked down by an undertow, and too far out to swim back to the shore."

"She was just a shell of her former self, functioning and talking but hardly alive."

"I couldn't tell her. I couldn't tell anyone. As long as I didn't say it aloud, it wasn't real."

"During this time we've been apart, it's you I've thought of when I'm at my weakest, and you who have pulled me through."

"We laughed ourselves silly, taking back our shared past, gently, piece by piece."

"See you in dreamland."

"I was running from one problem or place to another, with no time left to study, or sleep, or just breathe. I felt pulled in all directions, fighting to keep all these obligations circling in the air above me. It was only a matter of time before something fell."

"Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. Not a place, but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go.”"

"If there's one thing I've learned in the last few months, it's that sometimes you just have to close your eyes and jump."

"Sitting in front of my parents' house as he kissed me goodnight: Which two planets are almost identical in size?"

"Duh, he said, smoothing my hair back, Venus and Earth."

"Energy, he said, handing me my burrito."

"Rogerson, I asked him sweetly as we sat watching a video in the pool house, where would I find the pelagic zone?"

"Well, it's New Year's now but I don't feel that way anymore. I wonder if you do either. Something's happening to me. It's like I'm shrinking smaller and smaller and I can't stop it. There's just so much wrong that I can't imagine the shame in admitting even the tiniest part of it. When you left it was like there was this huge gap to fill, but instead of spreading wide enough to do it I just fell right in, and I'm still falling. Like I'm half-asleep, and I can't wake up, can't wake up...."

"There were moments - when Jeopardy came on, in the car during radio trivia challenges, or for practically any question I couldn't answer in any subject - that Rogerson simply amazed me. I started to seek out facts, just to stump him, but it never worked. He was that sharp."

"In the open sea, he said. Now shut up and eat your Junior Mints."

"In physics, I sprung on him as we sat in the Taco Bell drive-through, what does the capital letter W stand for?"

"It was my mother."