The world is full of holes and uneven seams, wrinkled places that you can’t make smooth, no matter how hard you try.

— Paula Stokes

The world needs more beautiful things.

— Paula Stokes

Time doesn’t heal anything. It’s like drinking. The best it can do is help you forget, if you’re lucky.

— Paula Stokes

To me, Mother Nature isn't nearly as scary as human nature.

— Paula Stokes

To us, reality is just raw footage: Unclear. Desultory. Too shocking or not quite shocking enough. It’s ironic that making something more real involves making it less real, but Gideon always says people don’t want real. They want the idea of real, which involves production.

— Paula Stokes

We’re like magnets, you know. Only I’m spinning, so I keep pulling you in and then pushing you away. I like you, but then you hurt me, so I run. I like you, but then something makes things feel impossible, so I turn away. And you. You’re so constant. Your orientation never wavers. You feel what you feel, and you want what you want without hesitation or doubt. God, I envy that. I feel like if someone stripped away my hesitation and doubt that there’d be nothing left.

— Paula Stokes

We wind our way up the spiral staircase and then down the long hallway that leads to his room. I feel almost like I’m watching the scene unfold from outside my body. My fingers are interlocked with his as he pulls me toward a moment that’s going to change everything. We are ten steps away. Five steps. I can’t decide. But then I do.

— Paula Stokes

When you care about someone, you can’t just turn that off because you learn they betrayed you.

— Paula Stokes

When you share feelings with someone, or secrets, it adds a layer of complexity to even the simplest things.

— Paula Stokes

Whoever said it was better to have loved and lost was completely full of shit.

— Paula Stokes