“He would look so young. They were both so young. Tessa knew it was unusual to marry at seventeen and eighteen, but they were racing a clock.
The clock of Jem's life, before it wound down.”

“The mind of man is like a clock that is always running down, and requires to be as constantly wound up.”

“The house kept its own time, like the old-fashioned grandfather clock in the living room. People who happened by raised the weights, and as long as the weights were wound, the clock continued ticking away. But with people gone and the weights unattended, whole chunks of time were left to collect in deposits of faded life on the floor.”

“If I were a young man
And young was my Lily,
A smart girl, a bold young man,
Both of us silly.
And though from time before I knew
She'd stab me with pain,
Though well I knew she'd not be true,
I'd love her again.”

“No life goes past so swiftly as an eventless one, no clock spins like a clock whose days are all alike.”

“The rains tumble down in the sky,
Young swallows have learned how to fly,
The leaves that were green are no longer so green,
And it looks like the summer is over.”

“And both were young, and one was beautiful.”

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.”

“I remember when rock was young,
Me and Suzie had so much fun
Holding hands and skimming stones.
Had an old gold Chevy and a place of my own.
But the biggest kick I ever got
Was doing a thing called the Crocodile Rock.
While the other kids were Rocking Round the Clock,
We were hopping and bopping to the Crocodile Rock.”

“If sinners were so unhappy, why would they prefer their suffering? But now I knew why. Without my wounds, who was I?”