“I drifted for what felt like hours. Neither of us spoke; we knew better. Peace like this came rarely and was as fragile as a child's smile.”

“Now I felt like I was drifting, sucked down by an undertow, and too far out to swim back to the shore.”

“I have gazed into the abyss, and the abyss has gazed into me. And neither of us liked what we saw.”

“Lately, the world felt fragile, like a blown egg, as if it might shatter beneath a careless touch.”

“She knew what it felt like to tremble like that before touching someone -- desire so acute that it became despair.”

“She was staying. A little longer.
V smiled to himself. So this was what winning the lottery felt like.”

“And so my child and I came to this place
To meet him eye to eye and face to face.
He made my daughter laugh, then we embraced.
We never knew what friends we had
Until we came to Leningrad.”

“If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.”

“He came into the world like a delivery that no one knew what to do with, and nobody wanted to sign for.”

“If she spoke, she would tell him the truth: she was not okay at all, but horribly empty, now that she knew what it was like to be filled.”