Who knew love could kill you? - Anthony Doerr

That something so small could be so beautiful. Worth so much. Only the strongest people can turn away from feelings like that.

Why is it so hard to transcend the identities assigned to us when we were young?

He should have risked more. It has taken him his whole life to accept himself, and he is surprised to understand that now that he can, he does not long for one more year, one more month: eighty-six years has been enough. In a life you accumulate so many memories, your brain constantly winnowing through them, weighing consequence, burying pain, but somehow by the time you’re this age you still end up dragging a monumental sack of memories behind you, a burden as heavy as a continent, and eventually it becomes time to take them out of the world.