Carmen hated the 'life is too short" rationalization. She thought it was one of the lamer excuses in the history of excuse-making. Whenever you did something because "life is too short not to," you could be sure life would be just long enough to punish you for it.

You could feel things or you could find a way to shut down. But once you were feeling things, you couldn’t decide exactly what to feel. That was the trouble with letting them in at all. They made a mess of the place.

Can you make yourself love? Can you make yourself loved? -Lena Kaligaris

Show me a girl with her feet planted firmly on the ground and I'll show you a girl who can't put her pants on. -Annik Marchand

But certain souls cohere. It's rare but possible. But it takes two powerful wills to make it so.

She had willed her heart to stay small and contained, but it wouldn’t be. Oh, well.

What you leave behind is the people you loved. You leave yourself in them.