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“I know you’ve been told this before and will likely hear it again. You get a single shot…doesn’t seem fair, but aim right and it’s enough. I won't ever forget you coming to see me, just to hear someone speak her name awhile has been everything. If you learn from the times you go wrong, you can revel in the times you don’t.”

The characters in All the Colors of the Dark are constantly having to grapple with right and wrong, struggling against a world that destroys them, a world that is simultaneously a source of beauty and wonder. This quote, spoken by Walter Strike in Chapter 102, acknowledges to Patch the difficulty of his quest and also informs him of the value that can be gained from it. Patch seems doomed to suffer right from the book’s beginning, unable to shake the dark reality that has traumatized him. Here, Walter Strike reminds him that though he may feel a resounding emptiness throughout his search, he should try and allow himself to feel the goodness of the work he’s doing. Patch is turning his inability to forget Grace into a passion for helping others remember the people they lost. 

This quote also foreshadows the literal single shot that Patch will take upon meeting Eli Aaron again, killing the man and allowing for the healing of many people to begin. Walter Strike says that this “one shot” is enough, and it turns out to indeed be enough to help Patch start over, to find meaning once again in his life with Charlotte, Saint, and Grace.

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