“I’m very headstrong. Once I’ve caught fire, there’s no dousing the flames—all engines full speed ahead.”

“He’s different from anyone I’ve ever encountered before, and it’s not just because his energy is fire-engine red; there’s something more…something seductive and dangerous. I feel it like a whisper meant only for me.”

“Could it be that first love was the only true love? And that after those first fires had been doused or burned out, men and women chose whom they would love based on worldly needs, and then reenacted the rituals and feelings of that first pure experience - nursed the flames that once burned of their own accord...”

“All at once, life seemed very full.”

“My cape caught fire. I dived to the sand and rolled on the ground to snuff the flames. So much for my grand entrance.”

“All I know is that while I’m asleep, I’m never afraid, and I have no hopes, no struggles, no glories — and bless the man who invented sleep, a cloak over all human thought, food that drives away hunger, water that banishes thirst, fire that heats up cold, chill that moderates passion, and, finally, universal currency with which all things can be bought, weight and balance that brings the shepherd and the king, the fool and the wise, to the same level. There’s only one bad thing about sleep, as far as I’ve ever heard, and that is that it resembles death, since there’s very little difference between a sleeping man and a corpse.”