Sometimes what we avoid most is not pain but mystery.

constant fear all these years was that if anyone ever came to know all of her—the real her, the true deep essential Faye—they would not find enough stuff there to love. Hers was not a soul large enough to nourish another.

The flip side of being a person who never fails at anything is that you never do anything you could fail at. You never do anything risky.

Samuel thinks about Bethany the way other people maybe think about God. As in: How is God judging me?

we’re so wrapped up in our own story that we don’t see how we’re supporting characters in someone else’s.

“It’s like when you’re at the dentist and they give you some really serious painkillers. You feel fine, but you’re pretty sure underneath it all you still hurt. The hurt is simply not registering. That’s how life has felt.”

She knew that way down deep she was a phony, just your average normal girl.

He was a compass needle always pointed toward her.

as if college students these days were a brand-new species totally disconnected from the past and from the culture that spawned them.