“Oleanders have attractive flowers, they decorate nature beautifully, but they are poisonous; and a woman is an oleander; it’s all right to watch her once in a while, but then you must walk away without touching her; if you ever try to taste her even once, you’ll head for hell!”

“You are so beautiful,” he sighed into her hair.She tried to check her girlish giggle, unsuccessfully. “Gray, it’s dark aspitch. You can’t even see me.”“Even in the dark,” he murmured against her skin. “You are the mostbeautiful woman I’ve ever known, even in the dark.”

“Ever had a woman say no to you, Dmitri?”“Once.” He turned the corner with a smile that made her want to cup his face, trace those beautiful lips with her own. “I married her.”

“You might want to have Kate close her eyes if you ever want her to sleep with you, asshole. Because once I take off my pants, you’ll always come second.”

“I wanted to tell her not to entertain despair like this. Despaire wasn't a guest, you didn't play its favorite music, find it a comfortable chair. Despair was the enemy."-white oleander”

“You don't need to be seeing someone to be in love with her. You can have lost touch with her, she can have hurt you, even inexplicably. If you ever felt that you really knew her and that it was what you knew that you loved, and if you remember what it was you once knew, why is it so crazy to retain that love still?”