“I must keep my head and not give in to desire, for desire is what causes women to drown.”

“Weapons are kept from women, but such a naming suggests that perhaps men fear our talents in war as well as our desire for peace.”

“what was a rose but the living proof of desire, the single best evidence of human longing and earthly devotion. but desire could be twisted,after all, and Jealousy was the name of the rose that did well in arid souls.”

“Nothing could do that to them, that's what they used to whisper as they sat on the back stairs, in the dark and the dust, as if desire were a matter of personal choice.”

“What did we know about those closest to us, really? No one ever dared to speak plainly about desire; no one said the word out loud.”

“I loved him even now, as he took a knife to my throat, as I drowned in blood, as I whispered "Cousin, you were wrong. We were born to live.”

“Women know things that men will never know. We keep the best secrets. We tell the best stories.”