In his own country, Death can be kind.

Monsters almost always are culture's way of working out their fears.

Why should he be spared?' 'Someone ought to be.' And it will not be me. I have survived, but I have not been spared.

I will never be without information,' she determined. 'I will do better than my sisters. If a bird or any other beast comes out of that uncanny republic where husbands are grown, I will see him with his skin off before I agree to fall in love.' For this is how Marya Morevna surmised that love was shaped: an agreement, a treaty between two nations that one could either sign or not as they pleased.

When I saw him I thought I could curl up inside him and go to sleep and never wake up." "Men are no good for that, Masha. They'll always want you working, when you're not softening their fall into bed at the end of the day.

You will always fall in love, and it will always be like having your throat cut, just that fast.

If you want to kill yourself, do not use us as your knife.