“I sat there thinking this had to be the pits. I was afraid that I had become fed up with life, that I would never ever feel enthusiasm again.”

“I had done this. I had pulled my life apart. I would never, ever be safe again.”

“If I had to do it over again, I would not have chosen this life. Then again, I'm not sure I ever had a choice.”

“I was thinking about his hands on me. Nobody had ever treated me like that. Not ever. But now they had. And how was I ever going to forget it? I would never. I would never.”

“I sat up in the strange bed fearing it had been a dream, afraid I would never see her again. Not because I wanted anything from her, only her presence. The disappearance of the presence of beauty is the most despairing of events on this time-wheel of ours that rolls onward towards death.”

“I had never planned to become a savanna baboon when I grew up; instead, I had always assumed I would become a mountain gorilla.”