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21 " Everything, it seemed-the city, the sky-was brighter and more vivid than before. So modern, compared with the time capsule downstairs. As he left the hotel, Henry looked west to where the sun was setting, burnt sienna flooding the horizon. It reminded him that time was short, but the beautiful endings could still be found at the end of cold, dreary days. "
― Jamie Ford , Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
22 " I try not to live in the past...but...sometimes the past lives in me "
23 " Henry was learning that time apart has a way of creating distance- more than mountains and time zone separating them. Real distance, the kind that makes you ache and stop wondering. Longing so bad that it begins to hurt to care so much. "
24 " But choosing to lovingly care for her was like steering a plane into a mountain as gently as possible. The crash is imminent; it's how you spend your time on the way down that counts. "
25 " I think I get it now. It doesn't matter how nice home is--it just matters that it feels like home. "
26 " It reminded him that time was short, but that beautiful endings could still be found at the end of cold, dreary days. "
27 " Like so many things Henry had wanted in life -- like his father, his marriage, his life -- it had arrived a little damaged. Imperfect. But he didn't care, this was all he'd wanted. Something to hope for, and he'd found it. It didn't matter what condition it was in. "
28 " After a lifetime of nods, frowns and stoic smiles, they were both fluent in emotional shorthand. "
29 " There are people in our lives whom we love, and lose, and unfailingly long for. They orbit our hearts like Halley’s Comet, crossing into our universe only once, or if we are lucky, twice in a lifetime. "
― Jamie Ford
30 " Henry, this isn't about us. I mean it is, but they don't define you by the button you wear. They define you by what you do, by what your actions say about you. And coming here, despite your parents, says a lot to them- and me. And they're Americans first. They don't see you as the enemy. They see you as a person. "
31 " There are people in our lives whom we love, and lose, and forever long for. They orbit our hearts like Halley's Comet, crossing into our universe only once, or if we're lucky, twice in a lifetime. And when they do, they affect our gravity. "
― Jamie Ford , Love and Other Consolation Prizes
32 " So Henry found himself stepping off the bus three stops early and wandering over to the Panama Hotel, a place between worlds when he was a child, a place between times now that he was a grown man. "
33 " Good Morning, Henry. How's it feel to be a prisoner for a day?' Henry looked at Keiko. 'Best day of my life.' Keiko found her smile all over again. "
34 " We all have things we don’t talk about, Ernest thought. Even though, more often than not, those are the things that make us who we are. "
35 " The more Henry though about the shabby old knickknacks, the forgotten treasures, the more he wondered if his own broken heart might be found in there, hidden among the unclaimed possessions of another time. Boarded up in the basement of a condemned hotel. Lost, but never forgotten. "
36 " I try not to live in the past, he thought, but who knows, sometimes the past lives in me. "
37 " At least we have the record, Henry thought. A reminder of a place where people didn't seem to care what you looked like, where you were born, or where your family was from. When the music played, it didn't seem to make one lick of difference if your last was Abernathy or Anjoy, Kung or Kobayashi. "
38 " Sometimes you need to feel the sadness, you need to feel everything to finally leave it behind, to have peace. Happiness. Sadness. Like all things, they both come to an end. "
39 " Memories are narcotic, he thought. Like the array of pill bottles that sit cluttered on my nightstand. Each dose, carefully administered, use as directed. Too much and they become dangerous. Too much and they'll stop your heart. "
40 " Henry looked up and down the empty avenue—no cars or trucks anywhere. No bicycles. No paperboys. No fruit sellers or fish buyers. No flower carts or noodle stands. The streets were vacant, empty—the way he felt inside. There was no one left. "