It was frustrating when people loved you and took an interest in you and sometimes worried about you and personally cared what you did with yourself. Lena wished that love were something you could flip on and off. You could turn it on when you felt good bout yourself and worthy of it and generous enough to return it. You could clip it off when you needed to hide or self-destruct and had nothing at all to give." (Lena, 194)

She was supposed to be putting her life together right now, and all she could seem to do was throw grenades at it.

It's so much easier to have no expectations than to have big ones.

Shy” was the sympathetic interpretation she got from older people. “Snotty” was the interpretation she got from people her own age.

You are not going to die, I know I said I'd let you, but I can't.

She got under the covers and put her arms around the bag. She could smell Tibby. It used to be she couldn't smell Tibby's smell in the way you couldn't smell your own; it was too familiar. But tonight she could. This was some living part of Tibby still here and she held on to it. There was more of Tibby with her here and now than in what she had seen in the cold basement room that day.

She remembered me.' This was his worst weakness, his most toxic drug.