Francesca Marciano

“How can I explain this? Why is it you can never hope to describe the emotion Africa creates?You are lifted.Out of whatever pit, unbound from whatever tie, released from whatever fear. You are lifted and you see it all from above. Your pit, your ties, your fear. you are lifted, you slowly rise like a hot-air balloon, and all you see is the space and the endless possibilities for losing yourself in it.”

“Suddenly it all seemed luminously clear. Love had very little to do with fear and emotional sabotage; love had to do with trust.”

“I had fallen out of my secure world, precipitated beyond the territories I had only begun to control so skillfully. What a foolish step to take. What an insane move to make.”

“I didn't go there lightly. I knew even then that this was the beginning of something very hard to reverse. But I couldn't do otherwise now: I was too possessed”

“It may be possible to forget our past but our past is not going to forget us.”

“Telling the truth can be a dirty job.”

“Love sometimes makes people ruthless in a way that not even hatred can.”

“Passion - eventually it cools.”

“Jealousy is a disease, it's like a poison.”

“A first kiss is the demarcation line: the same information that a moment ago felt private, all of a suddens seems unfair to withhold. And with that exchange came more.”

“Are you lovers?""Excuse me?""Do you mind my asking you?""Yes.""It's off the record.""Then why do you need to know?"Daniel Moore smiled. A large, happy smile."Because I would like to ask you to dinner.”

“Inutile piangere sul latte versato. (No use crying over spilled milk.)”

“You chose to live here now. You should try to live in the present.”

“Maybe that's what happens with age, I thought. All your life you force yourself to forget people who have hurt you, but as you get older and weaker their memory surfaces again, like a bubble in the water. You have to surrender, because you feel to tired to fight it and push it down again. And maybe, unexpectedly, you find out that instead, of revamping your anger, those memories produce an unexpected sweetness.”

“You'll understand me when you're older. Then you'll see how men can blind you. And I mean blind you. To the point that you're no longer yourself.”

“You know, when you're unhappy you don't have the strength left to take care of others. But it doesn't mean you don't love them.”

“We knew nothing of loss. Nobody has taught us about pain. Until that moment, death had just amounted to a scary sound.”

“Children know so little, they must learn quickly to imitate grown-ups whenever they feel unsure in a situation.”

“What kind of heart does one have to have in order to be able to get rid of these, without regret, as if they were empty beer cans?”

“I'd rather stay asleep than have to learn all those frightening secrets.”

“It was nice to borrow a slice of extra time.”

“I can't say why some memories float and other sink.”

“I think part of me doesn't want to remember him, for fear of missing him too much.”

“It's not easy to give up something you've had all your life.”

“It would drive me crazy to be a guest in my own house.”

“When people die and especially when they die tragically, others can't help but get carried away. They come up with their implausible interpretation and usually resort to cheap psychology. A sense of fatalism is the only form of relief left.”