“She was actively frightened of imparting confidences, because she feared that they might betray the world of oddness that lived inside her”

“It felt odd to realize she was frightened more by what he might know, and not of what he might be.”

“She's finding it hard to cope - her hopes have been dashed, the future she dreamed about has gone and she's scared about that. There's nothing in its place. She wants you back. She doesn't want to let go of everything it meant to her. Because the world seems horribly big and empty. Because the future is a very frightening concept when you'd previously planned on sharing it with someone. Because she's a girl, she's a romantic and she fears if she lets  go of her dream, she'll live a nightmare. Because she has a hope and she fears if she lets her hope go, who will she be?The effort, the pain of clinging on is preferable to the wide-open fear of letting go.”

“In the lonely dark she goes again and again to that locked cupboard knowing that she holds the key, and frightened of the self she might find inside.”

“He looked at her and for a moment she lived in the bright blue worlds of his eyes, eagerly and confidently.”

“Why could she remember nothing but stories of frightened people when Capricorn looked at her? She usually found it so easy to escape somewhere else, to get right inside the minds of people and animals who existed only on paper, so why not now? Because she was afraid. "Because fear kills everything," Mo had once told her. "Your mind, your heart, your imagination.”