I’m a realist,” I replied stubbornly, “not a romantic. Romantics
are always disappointed.”
“Maybe they’re disappointed because they’re always surrounded
by realists.” Simon countered.

But it was not the note that counted so much as the writing of it.
Just because it wouldn’t last forever out there didn’t mean it hadn’t
existed. that’s why I was there. I was there for a moment. And
because of a string of beautiful moments spent at that very same
place, moments I would keep inside me wherever I went.

The surest way to hurt yourself is to give up on love, just because it didn’t
work out the first time.

In those moments it's hard to remember that an angry voice is an invisible thing incapable of drawing blood.

You can only take steps toward the future you want. It's not guaranteed to be there.

This is why you have to live inside each beautiful or terrible thing as it happens to you because the present may be all you've got. And if there's more ahead then the present is where you can really shape your future.

She was so thin I could probably deck her on the side of the head with a pack of Marlboro Lights and she'd hemmorrhage internally.