Alex North

Courage is not the absence of fear, Pete knew. Courage requires fear.

A square mile of disparate people.

collections of random strangers who remained strangers.

Look what you gain by stopping.

That thought was so much better. It was the difference between regret and relief, between a cold hearth full of dead, gray ash and a fire that was still alight. He hadn’t lost this. He might not have found it fully yet either. But he hadn’t lost it.

Look at what you lose by drinking.

it felt like I was entering a place where everybody knew one another, and where I didn’t belong and never would.

People worry too much about the nature of things. Sometimes it’s better just to go with them.

Some conversations need to wait, if they even have to come at all.

It’s like there’s something tethering you to home and it’s stretching too thin. There’s this need inside you to get back.

She couldn’t afford to let her emotions out. Guilt. Fear. Anger. Once loose, any one of them would charge off, dragging the others along like dogs chained in a pack. And that was no good at all.