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21 " After a lifetime of nods, frowns and stoic smiles, they were both fluent in emotional shorthand. "
― Jamie Ford , Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
22 " 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. "
23 " 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. "
24 " 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. "
25 " 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. "
26 " I try not to live in the past, he thought, but who knows, sometimes the past lives in me. "
27 " 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. "
28 " It didn’t matter. He’d learned long ago: perfection isn’t what families are all about. "
29 " ...the mechanics of dying... "
30 " opened it. "
31 " -Kuinka kauan sinä odotat minua?-Niin kauan kuin on tarvis. En välitä siitä mitä isäni sanoo.-Entä jos joudun olemaan täällä, kunnes tulen vanhaksi ja hiukseni harmaantuvat?-Sitten tuon sinulle kävelykepin "
32 " Henry handed the record to his old friend, who draped it across his chest. His eyes closed as if he were listening to the music play somewhere,sometime long ago. "
33 " People relations is hard business. Hard to keep that going. "
34 " lunch today? "
35 " sometimes in life, there are no second chances. You look at what you have, not what you miss, and you move forward. "
36 " 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. "
37 " A long sabbatical into her day-to-day care, part of the mechanics of dying. He’d done all he could. 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. "
38 " 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 that beautiful endings could still be found at the end of cold, dreary days. "
39 " Feelings can only be hidden for so long from those who pay attention. "
40 " ...the hardest choices in life aren't between what's right and what's wrong but between what's right and what's best. "