“my own chocolate center has filled up with poison,the roses he gave me all twisted black”

“no one wants to be a girl who’s picked out her own embroidered heart, string by string, and left it for the birds to tangle in their nests.”

“You're swimming so hard in this ocean. Don't you know if you float, it will always hold you up?”

“I know—better than anyone—that once someone’s made up her mind to leave you, there’s nothing you can do to make her stay.”

“That’s your problem, Char. You’re friends with all these boys . . .”

“...because there will never be any boy's wrist to tie the balloon of your helium heart to (it has floated high far away from the heavy stone of that unnameable boy in chicago), you would never be with someone and then someone else, and you would definitely never be someone to someone else's else.”

“It's all eggs and milk in here, and those have expiration dates, so.”