“One of the effects of being crazily, obsessively in love is that it dulls your senses, your capacity for perception, till you no longer notice what is happening around you.”

“... Full of old cockatoos who used to be rich and aren't any longer, but they cling to yesterday tooth and nail, preferring to live on bread and sardines rather than sell what little they have left of their faded glory.”

“Hunger sharpens your ingenuity, she would always conclude with a laugh.”

“... living a life filled with deprivation and working from sunrise to sunset from your earliest years isn't to anybody's taste.”

“And yet for that, blood is thicker than water, even if the only thing you've shared with your people have been hardships and miseries.”

“When you undertake a change like that you have to do it with dreams and hopes, with illusions. To go without them is to merely run away ...”

“My day had already had a good dose of bitterness, and I preferred to keep it from getting any sadder.”