"'You. I've spent my life waiting for you.' -Keenan"
— Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely)

"He looked good, like sin in a suit."
— Melissa Marr

"Seth gave her that: a private space to believe in the illusion of normalcy."
— Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely)

"Mortals are such fragile things. Just tender feelings walking around exposed in their delicate shells...Easy to crush."
— Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely)

"Keenan was staring at her, too intently for comfort. "I don't know why certain people shine for others. I don't know why you and not someone else." He gently pulled her forward and whispered, "But it's you I think of when I wake each morning. It's your face in my dreams."
Aislinn swallowed. That would seem odd even if he were normal. And he wasn't. What he was-unfotunately-was completely serious."
— Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely)

"After a steadying breath, Aislinn turned to Keenan. "I'm sure you can figure out lunch without help. So, umm, go make friends or whatever."
And she walked away.

He sped up to stay beside her as they entered the cafeteria. "May I join you?"

"No."

He stepped in front of her. "Please?"

"No." She dropped her bag into a chair next to Rianne's things. Ignoring him-and the stares they were attracting-she opened her bag.
He hadn't moved.
With a shaky gesture, she pointed. "The line's over there."

He looked at the throng slowly progressing to the vats of food. "Can I get you something?"

"A little space?"

A flare of anger flashed over his too-beatiful face, but he said nothing. He just walked away."
— Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely)

"“Hey, Ocean Eyes,” my father said. “Where’d you go on us?” "
— Alice Sebold (The Lovely Bones)

"Life has loveliness to sell,
All beautiful and splendid things,
Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children's faces looking up,
Holding wonder like a cup.

Life has loveliness to sell,
Music like a curve of gold,
Scent of pine trees in the rain,
Eyes that love you, arms that hold,
And for your spirit's still delight,
Holy thoughts that star the night.

Spend all you have for loveliness,
Buy it and never count the cost;
For one white singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost,
And for a breath of ecstasy
Give all you have been, or could be."
— Sara Teasdale

"What did dead mean, Ray wondered. It meant lost, it meant frozen, it meant
gone."
— Alice Sebold (The Lovely Bones)

"She stepped closer to one of the statues. It looked wide-eyed, almost afraid as she reached out her hand.
One of the women reached out and snatched Aislinn's still uplifted hand. "No."
The women spoke all at once, not to her or to Keenan, but softly-as if to themselves-in a sibilant whisper. "He's ours. Fair exchange. Not yours to interfere."
— Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely)

"“Well, as my dad would say, it means she’s out of this shithole.”"
— Alice Sebold (The Lovely Bones)

"Inside the snow globe on my father's desk, there was a penguin wearing a red-and-white-stripe scarf. When I was little, my father would pull me into his lap and reach for the snow globe. He would turn it over, -letting all the snow collect on the top, then quickly invert it. The two of us watched the snow fall gently around the penguin. The penguin was alone in there, I thought, and I worried for him. When I told my father this, he said, 'Don't worry, Susie. He has a nice life. He's trapped in a perfect world.'

"
— Alice Sebold

"The arrow increased without motion, then in a quick swirl the trout lipped a fly beneath the surface with that sort of gigantic delicacy of an elephant picking up a peanut."
— William Faulkner (The Sound and the Fury)

"Find you, love you, marry you, and live without shame."
— Ian McEwan (Atonement)

""To my true bride, HS" "
— Henry Schoonmaker

""you are my life now. this"_he waved a hand dismissively around him at the club-"the fey, everything, it all falls into place once you accept me"
-kennan"
— Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely)

"This was the first time that he has ever looked into the labyrinth of the human soul. He was very far from understanding what he saw. But what was of more value, he felt and suffered with her. In years that were yet to come, he relived this memory in song, in the most beautiful song this world has known. For the understanding of the soul's defencelessness, of the conflict between the two poles, is not the source of the greatest song. The source of the greatest song is sympathy."
— Halldór Kiljan Laxness (Independent People)

""But the thing people see most is his silence, because some kinds of silence are actually visible." ~Jason Blake in Anything but Typical"
— Nora Raligh Baskin