I allowed myself to suffer how jarringly destructive the present feels and how fragile the past.

You know what the secret is? It's so simple. We love one another. We're nice to one another. Do you know how rare that is? - Carmen

some people fall in love over and over again while some people can only do it once.

Sex could be a blissful communion,. But it could also be a weapon, and its absence, sometimes, was required for the establishment of peace.

Exactly! We run or we lose ourselves in something, somebody, anything to try and ease our pain.

The happiness at getting what you want is not usually commensurate with the worry leading up to it.

She glared at him, feeling the old frustration. Sometimes in his presence she felt the deepest connection to him, and other times she felt completely alone-as though any bond to him was her own bitter imagination.