“It was brave," countered Issa. "It was rare. It was love, and it was beautiful.”

“Is it good or bad?" she asked Issa. The wrong question, she knew. She just couldn't help herself."It's both, sweet girl," said Issa. "like everything.”

“I love bookshelves, and stacks of books, spines, typography, and the feel of pages between my fingertips. I love bookmarks, and old bindings, and stars in margins next to beautiful passages. I love exuberant underlinings that recall to me a swoon of language-love from a long-ago reading, something I hoped to remember. I love book plates, and inscriptions in gifts from loved ones, I love author signatures, and I love books sitting around reminding me of them, being present in my life, being. I love books. Not just for what they contain. I love them as objects too, as ever-present reminders of what they contain, and because they are beautiful. They are one of my favorite things in life, really at the tiptop of the list, easily my favorite inanimate things in existence, and ... I am just not cottoning on to this idea of making them ... not exist anymore. Making them cease to take up space in the world, in my life? No, please do not take away the physical reality of my books.”

“Like attracts like, beauty finds beauty, and freaks look on from the smoking section, aching.”

“Beauty,’ Brimstone had scoffed once. ‘Humans are fools for it. As helpless as moths who hurl themselves at fire.”

“She looked at him, beautiful Kazimir whose smile used to work on her like a summons, compelling her to his side.”

“She had fallen in love with him twice. She loved him now with both loves, so overpowering it was almost unbearable.”