How sad it was, Carmen thought, that you acted awful when you were desperately sad and hurt and wanted to be loved. How tragic then, the way everyone avoided you and tiptoed around you when you really needed them. Carmen knew this vicious predicament as well as anyone in the world. How bitter it felt when you acted badly to everyone and ended up hating yourself the most.

Sometimes he felt sure that the key to happiness was a poor memory.

She realized all at once the deeper thing that bothered her, the thing that made him not just irritating but intolerable: how he kept loving her blindly when she deserved it so little.

I don't have the life of a famous person. But I do feel like I've been able to connect with a lot of people.

Different people were good at different things, Lena mused. Lena was good at writing thank-you notes, for instance, and Effie was good at being happy.

The phone was her worst enemy and her best friend but she never knew which until she answered it.

Maybe, sometimes, it's easier to be mad at the people you trust because you know they'll always love you, no matter what.