“It’s one thing to stand in line for free bread or to ask for help paying the rent,” she explained. “But there is nothing worse than the shame of being unloved.”

“There are worse things than having behaved foolishly in public.There are worse things than these miniature betrayals,committed or endured or suspected; there are worse thingsthan not being able to sleep for thinking about them.It is 5 a.m. All the worse things come stalking inand stand icily about the bed looking worse and worse and worse.”

“I want to ask him if it’s possible that a girl can be born unlovable, or does she just become that way?”

“a raped girl is bad for the family: it shows that they can’t protect their women; that they have little social standing; and that they’re not respectable. It’s worse for the victim because once a woman, or a girl—or a boy—is known as the target of a rape she becomes so despised, so shamed, so worthless that she turns into public property. No one is raped only once.”

“I should start charging uncomfortable thoughts rent. Except what would they pay me in? Probably something even worse.”

“Nothing is worse than being alone on the evening of the day when one's cow has exploded.”