“I commit her to memory. When I'm alone, I feel a strange yearning, the hunger of a man fasting not because he believes but because he's ashamed. Not the cleansing hunger of the devout, but the feverish hunger of the hypocrite. I let her go every evening only because there's nothing I can do to stop her.”

“I know I'm not the woman he so obviously hungers for and even though I'm not who he wants, I find myself stupidly willing to be her substitute.”

“Something inside me shuts down and I'm too numb to feel anything. It's like watching complete strangers in another Hunger Games. But I do notice they omit the part where I covered her in flowers.Right. Because even that smacks of rebellion.”

“When a poor person dies of hunger it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed.”

“I want to save her because..." Even though he was speaking to her, he never took his eyes off mine. "Because I'm a better man with her. Because I can't imagine going back to being who I was before I met her. Because I'm afraid...that I could be that monster again without her here loving me.”

“I’m not this girl,” she whispered against his lips. He had to know, this wasn’t her. She didn’t kiss strange men. She didn’t feel this deep hunger inside.“I know you’re not,” he said. “But I am this man.”