Once you let yourself grow close to someone, cutting the ties could be painful.

I’m just kinda tired. Like a monkey in the rain.

Strong and independent? I’m neither. I’m just being pushed along by reality, whether I like it or not.

If we reverse the outer shell and the essence--in other words, consider the outer shell the essence and the essence only the shell--our lives might be a whole lot easier to understand.

I wasn't in love with her. And she didn't love me. For me the question of love was irrelevant. What I sought was the sense of being tossed about by some raging, savage force, in the midst of which lay something absolutely crucial. I had no idea what that was. But I wanted to thrust my hand right inside her body and touch it, whatever it was.

So this was how secrets got started, I thought to myself. People constructed them little by little.

I think of rivers, of tides. Forests and water gushing out. Rain and lightning. Rocks and shadows. All of these are in me.