“As expected: she, the daughter of the Fall, recipient of its heaviest radiation, loved atomically.”

“You were at the age where you could fall in love with a girl over an expression, over a gesture. That's what happened with your girlfriend, Paloma- she stooped to pick up her purse and your heart flew out of you.”

“Nilda is watching the ground as though she's afraid she might fall. My heart is beating and I think, We could do anything. We could marry. We could drive off to the West Coast. We could start over. It's all possible but neither of us speaks for a long time and the moment closes and we're back in the world we've always known.”

“In love! She wafted through her day like a woman with a concussion.”

“Out of nowhere you said, I love you. For whatever it's worth.”

“Don’t tell her that your moms knew right away what it was, that she recognized its smell from the year the United States invaded your island.”

“What else she doesn't know: that the man next to her would end up being her husband and the father of her two children, that after two years together he would leave her, her third and final heartbreak, and she would never love again.”