“Just once" Blay said softly. "Do it just once. So I'll know what it's like.”

“Once, Picasso was asked what his paintings meant. He said, “Do you ever know what the birds are singing? You don’t. But you listen to them anyway.” So, sometimes with art, it is important
just to look.”

“Exactly!" said Deep Thought. "So once you do know what the question actually is, you'll know what the answer means.”

“Do you know what a palmist once said to me? She said: WILL YOU LET GO!”

“I wish to God,” said Gideon with mild exasperation, “that you’d talk—just once—in prose like other people.”

“Mention The Lord of the Rings just once more, and I'll more than likely kill you.
Dickie Davies' Eyes, Back Again In The D. H. S. S.”

“This is what I like about photographs. They're proof that once, even if just for a heartbeat, everything was perfect.”

“But once in a while… I don't know. I feel so close, Rose. So close to the edge. Like if I allow myself one small misstep, I'll plunge away and never come back. It's like I'll lose myself.”

“It went to pieces all at once—
All at once and nothing first,
Just as bubbles do when they burst.”

“Relationships are a battle. They are a chess game. And what did I do? I just threw all my chess pieces down on the board at once, and said, "Here! Have them all!”