“Always remember that hatred and love are equally consuming passions, and that in affairs of the heart there is a fine line between the two.”

“My father used to tease me at the table by implying that “cold Claire” had brought in the draft. I had three older sisters, all beautiful, and I was always less affected than them, slow to smile. I remember finding it extremely hard to open presents as a child because the requisite theatricality was too exhausting. My sisters forever humiliated me over a moment in fifth grade when I’d opened a present from my grandmother and declared, straight-faced, “I already have this.”

“In the midst of the battle between rebellion and surrender Bantry was suddenly uncertain what Flynn was starved for. The sensuality of a man’s kiss? Or the rich, iron taste of blood?”

“I am in a spot where I can neither be what I always am nor turn into what I could be.”

“My heart feels not so much in my chest as in my hands. I am carrying it along swiftly, as though I have become the messenger for what is going on inside me.”

“Life equaled love plus passion squared. Loving and being passionate about what one did was what made life so precious.”

“I'm scared of losing this web we're in. This elusive, indefinable, opposite of loneliness.”