From the Bookshelf of Book Nerds :D…

❝Why do we smile? Why do we laugh? Why do we feel alone? Why are we sad and confused? Why do we read poetry? Why do we cry when we see a painting? Why is there a riot in the heart when we love? Why do we feel shame? What is that thing in the pit of your stomach called desire?❞

❝The problem with my life was that it was someone else's idea.❞

❝I don't think my mom got the whole guy thing. I didn't get the guy thing either. And I was a guy.❞

❝As Dante was watching me search the sky through the lens of a telescope, he whispered, "Someday, I'm going to discover all the secrets of the universe."
That made me smile. "What are you going to do with all those secrets, Dante?"
"I'll know what to do with them," he said. "Maybe change the world."
I believed him.❞

❝His father laughed. I mean he laughed. "You're the only kid in the entire universe who could come up with a game as an excuse to beat the holy crap out of his tennis shoes." He laughed again. "Your mother's going to love this."❞

❝For a moment, we just stood there looking down at the dead bird. "It's just a little sparrow," he said. And then he started to cry.❞

❝"Why do birds exist, anyway?"
He looked at me. "You don't know?"
"I guess I don't."
"Birds exist to teach us things about the sky."
"You believe that?"
"Yes."❞

❝It seemed to me that Dante's face was a map of the world. A world without any darkness.
Wow, a world without darkness. How beautiful was that?❞

❝I wondered what my dad looked like when he was my age. My mother had told me he was beautiful. I wonder if he'd been as beautiful as Dante. And I wondered why I thought that.❞

❝"You were looking for me," he said.
I looked at him.
"In your dream. You were looking for me."
"I'm always looking for you," I whispered.❞

❝I made an announcement to my mother. "I'm well."
"You're not," my mother said.
"I'm being held hostage." That's the first thing I said to my father when he came home from work.
He grinned at me.❞

❝"Do you want to talk?"
"No," I said.
"Do you want me to go?"
"No," I said.❞

❝"Do you think it will always be this way?"
"What?"
"I mean, when do we start feeling like the world belongs to us?"
I wanted to tell him that the world would never belong to us. "I don't know," I said. "Tomorrow."❞

❝- The problem is not that I don't love my mother and father. The problem is that I don't know how to love them.❞

❝(view spoiler)[I remember Dante squeezing my hand and saying over and over, "I'm sorry I'm sorry Ari Ari Ari forgive me forgive me."
[...]
I remember Dante squeezing my hand. And I remember thinking, Forgive you? For what, Dante? What is there to forgive? (hide spoiler)]❞

❝I wondered what that was like, to hold someone's hand. I bet you could sometimes find all of the mysteries of the universe in someone's hand.❞

❝"I love swimming."
"I know," I said.
"I love swimming," he said again. He was quiet for a little while. And then he said, "(view spoiler)[I love swimming—and you.
I didn't say anything.
"Swimming and you, Ari. Those are the things I love the most. (hide spoiler)]"❞

❝When I opened the gift, I smiled.
And then I laughed.
A pair of miniature tennis shoes. I knew exactly what I was supposed to do with them. Hang them from my rearview mirror. And that's exactly what I did.❞

❝I missed him. I missed him more now that he was back than when he had been gone.
I didn't know why.❞

❝"I'm betting Dante's going to encourage Legs to chew up all his shoes." We all laughed except my dad. He didn't know about Dante's war against shoes. We laughed even harder when Legs and Dante walked back into the kitchen. Legs was carrying one of Dante's shoes in her mouth. "Look what she found, Mom."❞

❝The summer sun was not meant for boys like me. Boys like me belonged to the rain.❞

❝There are worse things in the world than (view spoiler)[a boy who likes to kiss other boys (hide spoiler)].❞

❝"Ari?" My father's voice was soft. "Ari, Ari, Ari. You're fighting this war in the worst possible way."
"I don't know how to fight it, Dad."
"You should ask for help," he said.
"I don't know how to do that, either."❞

❝Scars. A sign that you had been hurt. A sign that you had healed.
Had I been hurt?
Had I healed?
Maybe we just lived between hurting and healing.❞

❝You said I wasn't scared of anything. That's not true. (view spoiler)[You. That's what I'm afraid of. I'm afraid of you, Dante. (hide spoiler)]❞

❝(view spoiler)[I took a deep breath. "Try it again," I said. "Kiss me."
"No," he said.
"Kiss me."
"No." And then he smiled. "You kiss me." (hide spoiler)]❞

❝(view spoiler)[How could I have ever been ashamed of loving Dante Quintana? (hide spoiler)]❞