Ashley

“Over and over, she’d learned that what the dead most often conveyed was love and forgiveness. She could only conclude that these were the two most important things in the world—so important that people carried them into the afterlife for the sole purpose of being able to hand them back to the living.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“What was becoming clearer, however—and had probably always been clear to her mother—was that she was looking for understanding where there was none to be found.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“A thing can be crystal clear with hindsight, but just about as clear as mud when you're actually living it.”
― Dervla McTiernan, What Happened to Nina?

“What is it about time that confounds us? We spend it. We save it. We while it away. We waste it. We kill it. We complain about not having enough of it, or about having too much of it on our hands. We regret what we’ve done with it. We give it away. We want it back. We say “time and again” when something is bothering us and “it’s time” when something is supposed to end. Felix saw it so clearly: all we should ever want of time is more of it. Life was so simple when it was reduced to the barest of necessities: more time; more air; more Duke Ellington.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye