“It didn't mean forever but for right now I wanted Rush to be my first. He wouldn't be my last. A stop I might never forget or get over. That was what scared me the most. Not being able to move on.”

“My sister, who never understood most of the things I wanted her to, might have been able to understand what had happened to me in this summer of weddings and beginnings. And she was right. The first boy was always the hardest.”

“I was still owed an explanation, I thought, but so what? What good was it going to do me? It wouldn't have made me any happier. It was like scratching when you have chicken pox. You think it's going to help, but the itch moves over, and then moves over again. My itch suddenly felt miles away, and I couldn't have reached it with the longest arms in the world. Realizing that made me scared that I was going to be itchy forever, and I didn't want that.”

“I want someone to love me for me, faults and all.Someone who cant fall asleep without being her last call.Someone who wants to be my last goodnight and my first hello.Someone who will hold my hand and not let it go.Someone who means it when she says, 'I will leave you never.'Someone who looks into my eyes and sees her... Forever.”

“Right,' said Ben. He leaned fowards, touching my (Kate) arm. 'You're sure you want to go on with this?''Are you trying to scare me?''You should be scared.''That doesn't mean I should stop.”

“I didn't think about being king,” he said, his voice hoarse.Eddis stared. “Your capacity to land yourself in a mess because you didn't think first, Eugenides, will never cease to amaze me. What do you mean you didn't think about being king? Is Attolia going to marry you and move into my library?”