“Who would I be without Amy to react to? Because she was right: As a man, I had been my most impressive when I loved her -- and I was my next best self when I hated her.”

“It was not enough to be the last guy she kissed. I wanted to be the last one she loved. And I knew I wasn’t. I knew it, and I hated her for it. I hated her for not caring about me. I hated her for leaving that night, and I hated myself , too, not only because I let her go but because if I had been enough for her, she wouldn’t have even wanted to leave. She would have just lain with me and talked and cried, and I would have listened and kissed at her tears as they pooled in her eyes.”

“Kat tipped her head back, meeting my stare. Her throat worked on her next words. "I think I might love you."Air punched out of my lungs. I held her tight, and I knew right then I would burn down the whole universe for her if I had to.I would do anything to keep her safe. Kill. Heal. Die. Anything. Because she was my everything.”

“Just as Amy took the credit for making me my best self, I had to take the blame for bringing the madness to bloom in Amy. There were a million men who would have loved, honored, and obeyed Amy and considered themselves lucky to do so. Confident, self-assured, real men who wouldn't have forced her to pretend to be anything but her own perfect, rigid, demanding, brilliant, creative, fascinating, rapacious, megalomaniac self.”

“I compare myself with my former self, not with others. Not only that, I tend to compare my current self with the best I have been, which is when I have been midly manic. When I am my present "normal" self, I am far removed from when I have been my liveliest, most productive, most intense, most outgoing and effervescent. In short, for myself, I am a hard act to follow.”

“When I was eight, I found my best friend. Then, one day, I came home and she'd changed. During my absence, she'd become the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen in my life and I fell in love with her so completely that the very idea of ever being without her became an impossibility I couldn't stand. That same girl has always been the only one to ever hold my heart in her hands. She's the only one who can both build me and destroy me if she wishes and I wouldn't change that for anything. I can't live without her." ~ Isaiah”