Summer Lilies

“Everything should stay like this,” she says. I tell her that I wish it could, even though I know she means the temperature of the lake and I mean this summer, everyone home and together. As sad as I am for the suffering of the world, I wish to keep this exact moment, Emily on the beach in my arms.”
― Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

“Fifteen will get you twenty, Mr. Haywood," he said finally, his voice neither leering nor scolding, just a helpful piece of information passed along.”
― Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

“Lucky for me my brother fell in love with someone small," he said.

Love, he said. It was the single mention of that word during my relationship with Duke.”
― Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

“The number of things I’d failed to grasp back then was as limitless as the stars in the night sky.”
― Ann Patchett, Tom Lake