Jennifer E. Smith

“And being here like this, so suddenly close to him is enough to make her lightheaded. It's a feeling like falling.”

“Maybe this was why Owen had been so desperate to travel, why she'd longed for it herself without ever really knowing why. It wasn't just that you got to be somewhere else entirely. It was that you got to be someone else entirely, too.”

“He'd thought this was the start of something. But clearly she'd changed her mind, and he felt stunned by home quickly the whole thing had unraveled, the end coming before the beginning really even had a chance to begin.”

“...and it struck her as the truest form of kindness, the most basic sort of love: to be worried about the one who was worrying about you.”

“But it was different, somehow, to be reading it here, where the actual events had taken place all those hundreds of thousands of years ago. That was the thing about books, she was realizing; they could take you somewhere else entirely, it was true. But it wasn't the same thing as actually going there yourself.”

“Love is the strangest, most illogical thing in the world.”

“There's always a gap between the burn and the sting of it, the pain and the realization...You can't survive a rift that big without it leaving a mark.”

“But a small part of him also knew that the reason he'd never ventured anywhere was because of the worry that the reality of the world wouldn't match up to his dreams.”

“Is it possible not to ever know your type-not to even know you have a type-until quite suddenly you do?”

“But the crowds are surging around them and her backpack is heavy on her shoulders and the boy's eyes are searching hers with something like loneliness , like the very last thing he wants is to be left behind right now. And that's something Hadley can understand, too, and so after a moment she nods in agreement, and he tips the suitcase forward onto it's wheels, and they begin to walk.”

“He looks at her and smiles. "You're sort of dangerous, you know?" She stares at him. "Me?" "Yeah," he says sitting back. "I'm way too honest with you.”

“I think you have to be more of a believer for these things to work," he said, wiping some ice cream from his face. "How are you supposed to find what you're looking for if you're not convinced it's even out there?”

“It was his fault, all of it, and yet her hatred for him was the worst kind of love, a tortured longing, a misguided wish that made her heart hammer in her chest. She couldn't ignore the disjointed sensation that they were now two different pieces of two different puzzles, and nothing in the world could make them fit together again.”

“Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers.”

“Is it better to have had a good thing and lost it, or never to have had it?”

“No matter how long it’s been or how far you’ve drifted, no matter how unknowable you might be, there were at least two people in the world whose job it was to see you, to find you, to recognize you and reel you back in. No matter what.”

“People who meet in airports are seventy-two percent more likely to fall for each other than people who meet anywhere else.”

“They were just so different, and she kept wondering if he'd realize this was a mistake at some point; if, once she stopped being the novelty, the random American, he would recognize who she really was -- a nerdy bookworm, a happy loner -- and move on.”

“The important part is that you had someone to stick by you all that time. Even when everything sucked.”

“Just like when you're young and in love, a seven-hour plane ride can seem like a lifetime.”