“That's why she keeps her nails long, she says, to be able to scratch and claw.”

“She protected herself by making herself believe no-one else could ever really understand her.”

“Karen told me about an old woman who was the last surviving inhabitant of one of the Hermit Islands. She was the only one left who could speak her tribe's language, but the anthropologists didn't realize it and never bothered to learn it from her. When the old woman died, the language died with her.”

“My cynicism continuously undermines her faith in her own ability to master her moods.”

“Of all mammals, only a human being can say 'no.”

“- Growth has its season. There are spring and summer, but there are also fall and winter. And then spring and summer again. As long as the roots are not severed, all is well and all be well.”

“At first I was afraid that I would be left defenseless, that I would babble aloud the things I've always been terrified of saying. Instead, opium made me realize that I could say anything I liked without losing my identity.”