When you feel someone else's pain and joy as powerfully as if it were your own, then you know you really loved them.

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

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

Love didn't necessarily look the way you expected it to.

She thought she was independent and strong, but she got one small taste of love and she was hungrier than anyone. She was ravenous.

Honesty was a tough customer... Once you started allowing yourself some honesty, it couldn't easily be contained or limited to one part of your life. It was like poison ivy or a bossy houseguest. Once it was there, you couldn't tell it what to do. You had to really fight to keep it from taking over.

She went around with a broken heart, and she wasn't sure who'd broken it. She thought it was herself, mostly.