“Some things in life are out of your control. You can make it a party or a tragedy.”
“I’ve never been the one. Not for anybody.”
He closed the distance between them.
“You’ll get used to it.” He tipped her face up to his, kissed her.
“Why? Why am I the one?”
“Because my life opened up, and it flooded with color when you walked back into it.”
“People and relationships never stop being a work in progress”
“Ah, hi. It’s Carter. I wonder if you might want to go out to dinner, or maybe the movies. Maybe you like plays better than movies. I should’ve looked up what might be available before I called. I didn’t think of it. Or we could just have coffee again if you want to do that. Or… I’m not articulate on these things. I can’t use a tape recorder either. And why would you care? If you’re at all interested in any of the above, please feel free to call me. Thanks. Um. Good-bye.”
“Damn you, Carter Maguire, for your insanely cute quotient. You should be annoying. Why aren’t I annoyed? Oh God, I’m going to call you back. I know I’m going to call you back. I’m in such trouble.”
“Are you always so forthright over coffee dates?”
“I don’t know. You’re the only one I ever had a crush on.” Oh, boy. “And that was stupid.” Flustered again, he raked his fingers through his hair. “Now I’ve scared you. That sounds scary and obsessive. Like I have an alter somewhere with your pictures over it, where I light candles and chant your name. Jesus! That’s even scarier. Run now. I won’t hold it against you.”
She burst out laughing. Had to set her coffee back down before she slouched it over the rim.
“I’ll stay if you swear you don’t have the alter.”
“I don’t.” He swiped his finger in an X over his heart.”
“Love's scary, and sometimes it's transient. But it's worth the risks and the nerves. It's even worth the pain.”
“Did they know - the young and fearless - what a miraculous thing it was to have all of anyone?”
“Men shake hands after they beat each other up; we eat chocolate.”
“Somethings in life are out of your control. you can make it a party or a tragedy. Or, you could refuse to take the next step. You could refuse to take what you wanted most because you're afraid some day you might lose it.”
“You need a place just a click over middle range. Don’t want to go all-out first time, but you don’t want to run on the cheap either. You want atmosphere, but not stuffy. A nice established place.”
“Bob, you’re going to give me an ulcer.”
“This is all ammunition, Cart. All ammo. You want to be able to order a nice bottle of wine. Oh, and after dinner, if she says how she doesn’t want dessert, you suggest she pick one and you’ll split it. Women love that. Sharing dessert’s sexy. Do not go on and on about your job over dinner. Certain death. Get her to talk about hers, and what she likes to do. Then—”
“Should I be writing this down?”
“If it winds up earlier, you should have a movie picked out. This is assuming she isn’t sending you the ‘let’s go back to my place’ signals. In that case—”
“Don’t go there, Bob. Let’s just not go there.”
“She walked with a ghost of herself, one full of potential and possibility. One who was fearless. Where had that girl gone?”
“You can't argue with math, Carter. You'll always lose.”
“What matters is you're the blue butterfly."
"I'm… what?"
"Come on, Professor, Dr. Maguire. You know all about metaphors and analogies and symbolism. You flew into my life, just landed in it unexpectedly. Maybe miraculously. And the picture formed. It just took me a while to see it.”
“If you lived with her, you must have been in love with her.'
'No. I wanted to be in love with her. It's not the same thing at all.”
“Moments came and went, she thought. It was love that bound them together into a life.”
“Pentru asta existau fotografii. Totul se schimbă, aşa că trebuie să imortalizezi ceea ce a fost. Înainte ca zua de mâine să ia totul.”
“Quiero lo que somos cuando estamos juntos. Amo lo que creo que podríamos llegar a ser.”
“Popular fiction's a strong and viable force in literature. That's why it's popular.”
“Seduce my mind and you can have my body, Find my soul and I’m yours forever. —ANONYMOUS”
“Poate că fericirea până la adânci bătrâneţi era o prostie, dar acum ştia că voia să facă mai multe fotografii care să surprindă momente cu adevărat fericite. Pentru că acestea vor dura pănă la adânci bătrâneţi.”
“Wait. Wait. Mackensie? The redhead you had a crush on in high school?” Defeated, Carter rubbed the spot between his eyebrows again. “I should never have told you about that. This is why I rarely drink.” “But, Cart, this is like kismet.” Excitement rushed through the words. “It’s like return of the nerd. It’s the big chance to follow up on a lost opportunity.” “It’s coffee,” Carter muttered.”
“Love’s not some amorphous concept created for books and poetry and not attainable. It’s real and vital, and it’s necessary. Damn it.”
“Mac has a sexy breakfast story.” “Really?” Eyebrows lifted, Parker set the syrup and butter on the table of the breakfast nook. “Tell all.” “It began, and sexy tales often do, when I spilled Diet Coke on my shirt.”
“Where he listened some more until I’d pretty well run it down. Then he walked me back and—” “You invite him back in and have sex,” Emma prompted. “Get your own sexy breakfast story. I felt mildly embarrassed, and really grateful, so I give him a little peck. A ‘thanks, pal’ kind of peck. The next thing I know I’m in the middle of a brain-frying, blood-pumping, jungle-drum-beating kiss.”
“With his mind full of the engaging Rosalind, he stared at Mac. “Hi, sorry to interrupt.” He lurched to his feet, scattered his papers so some sailed to the floor. “Ah, it’s all right. No problem. I was just . . .” He bent to retrieve papers as she did the same, and knocked his head against hers. “Sorry, sorry.” He stayed down, met her eyes. “Crap.” She smiled, and the dimples came out to play. “Hello, Carter.”
“-Ăsta e numărul meu privat, nu cel de serviciu. Îmi dai un telefon?
-Sigur. Probabil că peste o oră ar fi prea curând,nu?
Ea râse şi îi puse carneţelul şi stiloul în mână.”
“-Sunt enormă.
-Într-un fel superb. Pun pariu că abia aştepţi. Hai să ne aşezăm puţin. Aţi ales deja numele?”
“-E vorba despre călătoria pe care o parcurge şi despre acceptarea ei. E viaţa şi lumina din tine. Şi iubirea.
Ochii Rosei se umeziră, iar ea îşi trecu mâinile peste burtică.”
“-Au fost două persoane excepţionale.
-Şi tu eşti la fel. Nu îmi pierd timpul cu prieteni care nu sunt excepţionali, spuse Parker.”
“Please, Mogget,” whispered Lirael, too soft to be heard by anyone at all. But the white shape did hear. It stopped and turned inwards, to face Orannis, changing from a pillar of fire to a more human shape, but one with skin as bright as a burning star. “I am Yrael,” it said, casting a hand out to throw a line of silver fire into the breaking spell-ring, its voice crackling with force. “I also stand against you.”
“What is the point of trying to put down on paper emotions that are too complex, too huge, too overwhelming to be confined by an alphabet?
Love isn't the only word that fails.
Hate does, too.”
“Once you had a good excuse, you opened the door to bad excuses.”
“Our too-young and too-new America, lusty because it is lonely, aggressive because it is afraid, insists upon seeing the world in terms of good and bad, the holy and the evil, the high and the low, the white and the black; our America is frightened of fact, of history, of processes, of necessity. It hugs the easy way of damning those whom it cannot understand, of excluding those who look different, and it salves its conscience with a self-draped cloak of righteousness”
“Was it better to get as much out of the moment as possible, knowing it could slip out from under you in a second? Was the actual experience better than the inevitable conclusion?”
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