“Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”

“What is it about the moment you fall in love? How can such a small measure of time contain such enormity? I suddenly realize why people believe in déjà vu, why people believe they’ve lived past lives, because there is no way the years I’ve spent on this earth could possibly encapsulate what I’m feeling. The moment you fall in love feels like it has centuries behind it, generations—all of them rearranging themselves so that this precise, remarkable intersection could happen. In you heart, in your bones, no matter how silly you know it is, you feel that everything has been leading to this, all the secret arrows were pointing here, the universe and time itself crafted this long ago, and you are just now realizing it, you are now just arriving at the place you were always meant to be.”

“The question, love, is whether you want me enough to take the risk.”

“No matter how long or how difficult, we will undo whatever that Moroi boy has done to you.”I managed a wavering smile, tasting blood in my mouth. “You sure about that, Dad? Because he’s done everything to me.”

“Take my hand and we’ll make it – I swear”

“If you didn’t remember something happening, was it because it never had happened? Or because you wished it hadn’t?”

“Relationships are like Rome — difficult to start out, incredible during the prosperity of the ‘golden age’, and unbearable during the fall. Then, a new kingdom will come along and the whole process will repeat itself until you come across a kingdom like Egypt… that thrives, and continues to flourish. This kingdom will become your best friend, your soul mate, and your love.”

“But you cant shut everyone out. I mean you have to have someone to love. . .someone to hold on to. . . someone–”

“Whoever said that love hurts was wrong. Love is excruciating, especially when you can feel it slipping through your fingers and there is nothing you can do about it. Like someone was playing tug-of-war with my limbs, ripping to shreds whatever was left behind. What it would feel like when love was lost…I wouldn’t survive that”

“If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.”

“ When you’re in love you never really know whether your elation comes from the qualities of the one you love, or if it attributes them to her; whether the light which surrounds her like a halo comes from you, from her, or from the meeting of your sparks.”

“Real museums are places where Time is transformed into Space.”

“some people fall in love over and over again while some people can only do it once.”

“That’s the nature of being a parent, Sabine has discovered. You’ll love your children far more than you ever loved your parents, and — in the recognition that your own children cannot fathom the depth of your love — you come to understand the tragic, unrequited love of your own parents.”

“He promised us that everything would be okay. I was a child, but I knew that everything would not be okay. That did not make my father a liar. It made him my father.”