“In a few days he'd be gone. If only he'd be back exactly a year from now.” — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“Find Cupid everywhere in Rome because we'd clipped one of his wings and he was forced to fly in circles.” — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“I want Billowy too. And the espadrilles. And the sunglasses. And you.” — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“I wish I knew how to calibrate my kiss the way he did but passion allows us to hide more.” — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“That day belongs to a different time warp. We should learn to leave sleeping dogs—” — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“I’m not wise at all. I told you, I know nothing. I know books, and I know how to string words together—it… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“We may never speak about this again. But I hope you’ll never hold it against me that we did. I will have… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“I could never think of him in New England. When I lived in New England for a while and was separated from… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“The thought washed over me like water on a flower shop window, like a soothing, cool lotion after you've showered and spent… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“Just because someone says he'll see you at midnight doesn't mean you're automatically bound to hug him when you've barely shaken hands… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“Leaning out into the evening air, I knew that this might never be given to us again, and yet I couldn't bring… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“What does this say about the life you've lived, then?' 'Part of it— just part of it —was a coma, but I… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“What had been in my head for so long would now be out in the real world, no longer afloat in my… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“We were too close, I thought, I'd never been so close to him except in a dream or when he cupped his… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“And on that evening when we grow older still we'll speak about these two young men as though they were two strangers… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“Finally his voice came through. 'Elio,' he said. I could hear my parents and the voices of children in the background. No… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“Looking at him now from the balustrade, I felt something so tender for him that it reminded me how eagerly I had… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“It was just that I was hoping we'd go together.' 'You mean like the other day?' he added, as though to help… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“Are you going to be okay?' 'I thought I was. I'll get over it.' I'd heard too many characters say the same… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“I knew that he was filled with grief when he finally kissed me one last time in one of the bathroom stalls… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“Wait. Are you saying what I think you're saying?' 'Ye-es.' Now that I had spilled the beans I could take on the… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“But this thing that almost never was still beckons, I wanted to tell him. They can never undo it, never unwrite it,… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“But all of these hours were strained by fear, as if fear were a brooding specter, or a strange, lost bird trapped… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“In years to come, if the book was still in his possession, I wanted him to ache. Better yet, I wanted someone… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“All these years, whenever I thought of him, I'd think either of B. or of our last days in Rome, the whole… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“Two words from him, and I had seen my pouting apathy change into I’ll play anything for you till you ask me… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“As I tried to doze, the incident on the piazzetta, lost somewhere amid the Piave war memorial and our ride up the… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was the truth, maybe I didn't want things to turn abstract, but I felt I… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“Well, since you're not going to do anything with me—can you at least read me a story? I'd settle for that. I… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“I wished I were like those soldiers in films who run out of bullets and toss away their guns as though they… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“I look back on those days and regret none of it, not the risks, not the shame, not the total lack of… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“And yet, out of the blue, a tender moment would erupt so suddenly between us that the words I longed to tell… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“What if my body—just my body, my heart—cried out for his? What to do then? What if at night I wouldn't be… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“How I admired people who talked about their vices as though they were distant relatives they'd learn to put up with because… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“He is right, there is no denying it,' said my father under his breath, as though mimicking the part of a cowered… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“ I don't care to remember —like I know myself —hinted at a realm of human experience only others had access to,… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“This felt special. Like showing someone your private chapel, your secret haunt, the place where, as with the berm, one comes to… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“Fear not. It will come. At least I hope it does. And when you least expect it. Nature has cunning ways of… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“I hadn’t a hope left. And maybe I stared back because there wasn’t a thing to lose now. I stared back with… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
