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Kindle Notes & Highlights
“I’m sure your parents wouldn’t mind if you became someone you liked instead of the person you are. It’s better to be happy a little bit than to not be happy at all.”
“You told me that you have to be nice when you can because you don’t know when it could mean everything to someone.”
I just think it’s important sometimes to be remembered for what you lived for rather than what you died for.”
“Sometimes you need to take things on faith,” she said quietly. “Even if you think you have no faith left, I promise you, you do. All of you do. It’s easier, I think, to stay lost. But when you’re found, when you open your eyes, you can finally see the truth for what it is.”
“You think yourself alone. You think yourself lost. We wanted to show you that there was so much more than this place. We didn’t come to hurt you. We didn’t come to save you. Only you can do that. We came to be your friend. To make you understand that, in the end, you are never alone.”
She rolled her eyes. “Sometimes you seem very smart.” “And other times?” She smiled at him. “Other times it’s a good thing you’re pretty. Isn’t that right, Alex?”
“I have unique and varied tastes,” Art told him, picking up one of the maps off the counter. “I can like dolls and study UFOs at the same time. Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I’m not capable of deciding what my interests should be.”
“No one showed humans how to do anything. You all figured that out all on your own. Which, by the way, good job. Well. Mostly. You guys seem to care more about blowing stuff up than curing diseases. That’s kind of backward, but then who am I to judge.
“They didn’t let me see … anything,” Art said suddenly. Nate felt Alex stiffen next to him, but they both kept quiet. “While I was in the Mountain. Not like this. I begged them. I pleaded with them. I promised to show them what they wanted. All I wanted to do was go outside and look toward the sky. But they said no. They thought … I don’t know what they thought. That maybe if I saw the stars, I could use them to communicate or something ridiculous like that. They didn’t understand that all I wanted was to look up and see what I could see. How different it would be to be staring at the stars
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It’s almost impossible to understand. None of us could get that. Not until they felt a heart beating in a chest like I have. Not until I felt the bones beneath my skin. We’re not alike. Not really. We’re separated by time and space. And yet, somehow, we’re all made of dust and stars. I think we’d forgotten that. And I don’t know if you ever knew that to begin with. How can you be alone when we’re all the same?”
Nate wondered when exactly he’d started to love them both. When he had allowed himself to feel something he didn’t think he was capable of.
Because that kind of grief … it never really goes away. It doesn’t heal. It festers. And they knew that, I think.”
“I know now,” she said. “What it means to be human.” He wiped away her tears. “What?” “It means having your heart broken. There is nothing more human than a broken heart. How am I supposed to leave you both?”
She said, “I wondered what you would be like. Humans. What you would be capable of. How your minds would work. How your hearts would beat. You are animals. Fierce and wild. You are harsh and brutal and beautiful. There is no one like you in all the universe. You have the power for such destruction within you. And such joy. It’s a dichotomy that shouldn’t exist, and yet here it is. Within you. Within all of you.” She leaned forward and kissed his forehead. Each cheek. The tip of his nose. “I’m glad we found you. I’m glad he has you. Remember that when you look up at the stars.”
He said, “No matter where you go. No matter how far away you’ll be, I’m always going to be with you. I love you. I love you. I love you.”
