“If she could give love to IT perhaps it would shrivel up and die, for she was sure that IT could not withstand love.”

“At first, she could not talk. Perhaps it was the sudden bumpiness of love she felt for him. Or had she always loved him?”

“Could she kiss him? Would he allow her that? Was that something he could pretend was nothing? What about making love? Could she just open up her legs and pull him inside her and have him all she wanted and later give her assent that it was nothing?”

“I would have told her then she was the only thing that I could love in this dying world but the simple word "love" itself already died and went away.”

“She only felt that the candle would burn better, the packing go easier, the world be happier, if she could give and receive some human love.”

“...she gave him all the love she could not give herself. She loved him becasue he was the embodiment of those attributes she wanted for herself...”