“Even the human race can't claim to be natural anymore. We are fake, dying things. How fitting that I would end up in this sham of a marriage.”

“And here we are: two small dying things, as the world ends around us like falling autumn leaves.”

“Eventually I realize that I am holding on to him just as tightly as he holds on to me. And here we are: two small dying things, as the world ends around us like falling autumn leaves.”

“His three wives are huddled together on the bare mattress, one of them dying; when we're together, we form an alliance he can't touch. He's scared to even try.”

“Maybe it is desperation. Maybe we can't let things fall apart without trying. We can't let go of the people we love.”

“Maybe it is desperation," I say. "Maybe we can't let things fall apart without trying. We can't let go of the people we love."He looks at me, and in the sunlight his eyes come alive with greens and golds. "Sometimes we can," he says.”

“We hope for things we may not get to see, and we hold on with both hands because it's one of the few things that can't be stolen from us.”