Nicole Krauss

ninety-nine percent of all the species that have ever lived on earth are extinct.

He cuddled closer. "I want to tell you a secret," he whispered. "Because it's your birthday." "What?" "First you have to promise to believe me."

"The thirty-six holy people." "What thirty-six holy people?" "The ones that the existence of the world depends on."

it moved me in a way one hopes to be moved each time he begins a book

If it weren't for her, there would never have been an empty space, or the need to fill it.

A place belongs to anyone who has a use for it,"

Her kiss was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.

grateful for the world which purposefully puts divisions in place so that we can overcome them

Zvi Litvinoff, author of The History of Love, was born in Poland, and lived in Valparaiso for thirty-seven years until his death in 1918.

It is not known that Litvinoffs favorite flower was the peony. That his favorite form of punctuation was the question mark.