“As the earth dies your spirit will bloom; as the world fades your soul will rise and glisten. Amongst the dehydrated crevices of a desert earth you will stumble upon your diamonds; in between the dry skulls and cracked bones you will find your sapphires.”

“God declared that the end of ourselves need not be the end of ourselves. And if we don’t somehow find that exhilarating, we will end ourselves.”

“However cozy things seemed, the facts of life were the same. You couldn’t escape death: It would get us all in the end.”

“We all know we’re one day closer to the end when we wake up in the morning. We just kid ourselves that it’s not happening.”

“Death isn’t the end, it’s the beginning.”

“When I buy a new book, I always read the last page first, that way in case I die before I finish, I know how it ends. That, my friend, is a dark side.”

“Promise me you’ll marry me. Not now. Someday. Because I need to know.”Claire felt a flutter inside, like a bird trying to fly, and a rush of heat that made her dizzy. And something else, something fragile as a soap bubble,and just as beautiful. Joy, in the middle of all this horror and heartbreak.“Yes,” she whispered back. “I promise.”And she kissed him, and kissed him, and kissed him, while the sun came up and bathed Morganville in one last, shining day.”

“You get use to someone—start to like them, even—and they leave. In the end, everyone leaves.”

“Slowly, with many lost days, I come back to life.”

“End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path. One that we all must take.”

“It’s better to burn out than to fade away.”