“Later I would come to believe that erotic ties were all a spell, a temporary psychosis, even a kind of violence, or at least they coexisted with these states. I noted that criminals as well as the insane tended to give off a palpable, vibrating allure, a kind of animal magnetism that kept them loved by someone. How else could they survive at all? Someone had to hide them from the authorities! Hence the necessity and prevalence of sex appeal for people who were wild and on the edge.”

“You could run from someone you feared, you could try to fight someone you hated. All my reactions were geared toward those kinds of killers – the monsters, the enemies. When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How could you run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If your life was all you had to give your beloved, how could you not give it? If it was someone you truly loved?”

“I’d had more than my fair share of near-death experiences; it wasn’t somethingyou ever really got used to.It seemed oddly inevitable, though, facing death again. Like I really was markedfor disaster. I’d escaped time and time again, but it kept coming back for me.Still, this time was so different from the others.You could run from someone you feared, you could try to fight someone youhated. All my reactions were geared toward those kinds of killers—the monsters,the enemies.When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How couldyou run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If yourlife was all you had to give your beloved, how could you not give it?If it was someone you truly loved?”

“Even though I believe birthday parties should be given, not taken, I wish someone would take all of mine and hide them on the other side of eternity.”

“I am sure that deep down Ikhmenev was in a state of turmoil and pain as he witnessed the tears and torment of his poor wife; I am sure it was more agonizing for him than for her - but he could not control himself. This is what happens sometimes even with the most kind-hearted of people, who are nevertheless weak-willed, and who, despite their kind-heartedness, are apt to get carried off into a state of ecstasy when unburdening themselves of their grief and anger, even at the expense of hurting someone innocent, more often than not someone who is dear to them.”

“I have come to realize that destiny can hurt a person as much as it can bless them, and I find myself wondering why--out of all the people in all the world I could ever have loved--I had to fall in love with someone who was taken away from me.”