“As soon as I saw him again I could forget all this existed; I would be calm. Was that a definition of love: a force that can drug you with calm and help you forget all the sandpaper realities of the world?”

“Witnessing the pain of others is the very least you can do in this world. It's how you know that when your own turn comes, someone will be there with you.”

“We were jigsawed, meant to fit together, making a whole picture.”

“The easiest thing is to say no. What's not so easy is telling yourself to stop.”

“You know that I could as soon forget you as my existence!”

“I wondered if all a person could hope for was illusion and luck, for I was forced to conclude that the world was fundamentally and appallingly dangerous. It is a lesson I will never forget.”

“there was daunting poverty, and there was haunting wealth and the narrator warned her to keep to herself”