“Sometimes I think I'll never really belong anywhere, or trust anyone. I think I need to learn how to stop caring about that.""You can't decide not to care," Sean said. "You can only control your response.""Is that really possible?" I asked."It really is," he said. "It even starts to get a little bit easier.""Really?" My voice sounded like a stranger's. "When?”

“I'm not like you, Mal. I never really fit in the way that you did. I never belonged anywhere.""You belonged with me," he said quietly."No, Mal. Not really. Not for a long time.”

“I would never be part of anything. I would never really belong anywhere, and I knew it, and all my life would be the same, trying to belong, and failing. Always something would go wrong. I am a stranger and I always will be, and after all I didn’t really care.”

“But I know how much you care for me. I read it in the ribbon. Lorcan sighed. Did you really need to read the ribbon to know that I cared for you?, he said. Really, Grace, don't you know me at all?I thought I did, she said”

“I don't think sleeping with you is going to solve anything," she said, stopping at the guest bedroom door."I don't really care what you think.”

“It's much easier to get over someone if you can delude yourself into thinking you never really cared that much.”