Masterpiece

A person's birthday should be a special day, a wonderful day, a day of pure celebration for the luck of being born!

A great friendship was like a great work of art, he thought. It took time and attention, and a spark of something that was impossible to describe. It was a happy, lucky accident, finding some kindred part of yourself in a total stranger.

The most important things in a friendship didn't have to be said out loud.

The treasure secretly gathered in your heart will become evident through your creative work. —Albrecht Durer

That was the very heart of friendship...your willingness to help each other in a jam, to take a friend's problems as your very own.

A good friend is someone you can count on. No matter what.

He HAD seen the world. It had been scary at times, but also exhilarating. Who could have imagined it would be such a complicated, interesting place?...When you saw different parts of the world, you saw different parts of yourself. And when you stayed home, where it was safe, those parts of yourself also stayed hidden.

This was different: the feeling of being chosen. Out of everybody in the world...this boy had picked him as the one he liked best of all.

He remembered hearing Karl tell James once that it was hard for people to ever know what they really looked like. Reflections in mirrors weren’t accurate, Karl said, because when you stared at yourself in a mirror, you subconsciously composed your face in a way that wasn’t your natural expression. Marvin wondered it that was true when you were with strangers too. Maybe you only looked like your true self with the people you loved. And maybe that was a face you yourself hardly ever got to see…

The most important things in a friendship didn’t have to be said out loud. James