“Her voice makes me think of her mouth makes me think of her breath makes me think of her breasts.”

“I don’t want her falling in love with me as a voice on the phone while at the same time she’s try­ing to ditch me as a re­al per­son.”

“Her haunting me. The way a song stays in your head. The way you think life should be. How anything holds yourattention. How your past goes with you into every day of your future.”

“Love me, love me, love me, love me, love me, love me, love me, I'll be anybody you want me to be. Use me. Change me. I can be thin with big breasts and big hair. Take me apart. Make me into anything, but just love me.”

“It's just such a big commitment," Brandy says, "being a girl, you know. Forever."Taking the hormones. For the rest of her life. The pills, the patches, the injections, for the rest of her life. And what if there wassomeone, just one person who would love her, who could make her life happy, just the way she was, without the hormones and make-up and the clothes and shoes and surgery? She has to at least look around the world a little.”

“Amber saw getting infected as the ultimate commitment. Like her and the guy would be doomed to be with each other. Looking back, she figured a brush with death would make her really enjoy her life. Like she would feel more alive.”

“It's just the biggest mistake I could think to make”