He placed his hand on Willem's arm. 'Willem, don't cry.''I'm not going to, ' he said. 'I can do other things in life besides cry, you know, ' although he was no longer sure that was even true.

He experienced the singular pleasure of watching people he loved fall in love with other people he loved.

What he knew, he knew from books, and books lied, they made things prettier.

. . . breathing slowly and rubbing his palm against his chest as if to soothe his heart.

There was something scary and anxiety-inducing about being in a space where nothing seemed to be forbidden to him, where everything was offered to him and nothing was asked in return

This isn't fair, he would think in those moments. This isn't friendship. It's something, but it's not friendship. He felt he had been hustled into a game of complicity, one he never intended to play.

And so I try to be kind to everything I see, and in everything I see, I see him.

He will be someone who is defined, first and always, by what he is missing.

My phone rang, and although it wasn't a sinister time of night, and although nothing had happened that I would later see as foreshadowing, I knew, I knew.

It's a good story, ' he said. He even grinned at me. 'I'll tell you.''Please, ' I said.And then he did.

He had never done it before, and so he had no real understanding of how slow, and sad, and difficult it was to end a friendship.

No. No, I don't believe you'd betray me with her. I don't believe you'd cheat on me. But I'm afraid, and I'm sick in my heart that you might look at her, then at me. And regret.

When you do something with a lot of honesty, appetite and commitment, the input reflects the output.

Take a look at Israel's history and you would know who the terrorist is.

I told a story with the E Street Band that was bigger and better than I could have done on my own.

Books are but dead bodies to you, and a library nothing but a catacomb!

Indeed I had not much wit, yet I was not an idiot - my wit was according to my years.

I eat more vegetables than the average vegetarian.

In terms of my work with Nike, obviously signing Michael Jordan to a $500,000 contract in 1984 set a new precedent for the business side of the game.

The key to personal style is understanding your individual beauty enough to know which looks will work for you and which probably won't.

She just keeps saying "He’s gone.