“Bess had become the ocean, always breaking against the rocks but never staying broken. Her love was the ocean, too, endless and always changing, yet forever the same.”

“Bess hadn't ever been good with change. She'd never been good with taking leaps of faith, or risks or changes. When something worked, she tended to stick with it.Even when something didn't.”

“Sometimes when you break things, you can hold them together for a while with string or glue or tape. Sometimes, nothing will hold what's broken, and the pieces fly all over, and though you think you might be able to find them all again, one or two will always be missing”

“Sometimes when things break, you can hold them together fora while with string or glue or tape. Sometimes, nothing will holdwhat’s broken, and the pieces fly all over, and though you think youmight be able to find them all again, one or two will always bemissing.I flew apart. I broke. I shattered like a crystal vase dropped on aconcrete floor, and pieces of me scattered all over. Some of them Iwas glad to see go. Some I never wanted to see again.”

“He hadn’t been her first lover or the first boy to give her an orgasm. He hadn’t even been the first she’d loved. He’d been the first to turn her inside out with something as simple as a smile. The first to make her doubt herself. He’d taken her deeper than anyone ever had, and yet she hadn’t drowned. ”

“I didn’t fall in love with James. Falling sounds like an accident. Falling hurts. I’d fallen in love with Michael, fallen hard like slipping off a cliff and hitting the rocks below. Falling in love was something I’d vowed never to do again.I chose to love James.”

“I never think of nothing. The closest I come to a blank mind is when I am counting, fucking, or drinking. The rest of the time, my thoughts are like a hamster on a wheel, running endlessly but getting nowhere.”