Carol Oates

“Love is just like the flower; it has hidden depths that we rarely ever explore. Beneath the surface lies a network of roots. You can admire the flower for what it is, or you can dig deeper. The more you dig, the more you will find. The real reasons we love a person sometimes exist in the darkest and deepest part of us, the part that knows no logic…or rationale.”

“A broken heart is something even I can’t protect you from. I’ve been alone for so long, and believe me, all that does is provide a false sense of security. Being alone doesn’t erase the deep yearning that exists in all of us. We are not solitary creatures. You have to love and open your heart. If not, what is it we are trying to save? When it swallows you whole, remember it means you’ve lived.”

“Sebastian tapped his index finger on the polished wood thoughtfully. Yes, it was a universal truth: some things once broken were broken forever—like trust. It might be patched up and smoothed over, but it would always be the thing that had once been shattered.”

“Is this really about keeping me safe or about you not wanting to share your sandbox with the others?”

“I think you've been sleeping on the job; the city isn't exactly paradise," she said caustically. "Every time you clap your hands, another person becoms a statistic.”

“The temptation to take the next step hung in the air around them...it was the apple: take one bite, and there was no going back.”

“You have lived all these years and you're still a grumpy teenage boy. That must take effort.”

“She looked like a grown-up, a calm, controlled grown-up, and she was glad for that one mercy. No one would be able to judge from her exterior that she was falling apart on the inside or that she didn't feel mature at all.”

“Deep down under where his heart resided, strangled up in thorny vines of guilt, anger, fear and longing, there lay something deeper in him, something that he couldn’t see but she could.”

“There is an hour when you realize: Here is what you have been given. More than this, you won't receive. And what this is, what your life has come to, will be taken from you. In time”