“If I ever reach heaven I expect to find three wonders there: first, to meet some I had not thought to see there; second, to miss some I had expected to see there; and third, the greatest wonder of all, to find myself there.”

“Ikävä: If I'm off to see you with a bottle of red wine, shall I find some blue cheese at the petrol station, I wonder.”

“The first human corpse I saw had housed my grandmother’s soul. I expected a serene mien. I expected to find her sleeping. I expected a transforming beauty, something painted by Millais. Instead, the old whore petticoats of skin.”

“And I said to myself that he was the first thing that I had ever missed in my life.”

“It was the first time I had ever made love. I wondered if he knew that. It felt like crying. I wondered, Why does anyone ever make love?”

“I said "water" expecting the Word would satisfy my thirst,
Talking all about the second and third
When I haven't understood the first.”

“But at times I wondered if I had not come a long way only to find that what I really sought was something I had left behind.”

“When I see myself, I wonder: what do others try to see in themselves?”

“I saw my earlier selves as different people, acquaintances I had outgrown. I wondered how I could ever have been some of them.”

“I have come to realize that destiny can hurt a person as much as it can bless them, and I find myself wondering why--out of all the people in all the world I could ever have loved--I had to fall in love with someone who was taken away from me.”