“The love of my life came not As love unto others is cast;For mine was a secret wound-- But the wound grew a pearl, at last.”

“Love is not love that wounded bleeds And bleeding sullies slow. Come death within my hands and I Unto my love will go.”

“Women love the last blow as well as the last word, and when they fight for love they are pitiless as a wounded buffalo.”

“Their silence comfortable. Something unfolding. But what? Not love, which wrenched and wounded. Not love, which came only once.”

“Hatsumomo's lovely smille grew... until her lips were as rich and full as drops of blood beading at the edge of a wound”

“A wound in the soul, coming from the rending of the spiritual body, strange as it may seem, gradually closes like a physical wound. And once a deep wound heals over and the edges seem to have knit, a wound in the soul, like a physical wound, can be healed only by the force of life pushing up from inside.This was the way Natasha's wound healed. She thought her life was over. But suddenly her love for her mother showed her that the essence of life - love - was still alive in her. Love awoke, and life awoke.”