The perishable nature of love is what gives love its profound importance in our lives. If it were endless, if it were on tap, love wouldn't hit us the way it does.

Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling.

It was amazing how it worked: the tiniest bit of truth made credible the greatest lies.

You begin always knowing nothing. You remain forever an amateur, a first timer.

Sourmelina's secret (as Aunt Zo put it): 'Lina was one of those women they named the island after.

In the end we had the pieces of the puzzle, but no matter how we put them together, gaps remained, oddly shaped emptinesses mapped by what surrounded them, like countries we couldn't name.

It was like autumn, looking at her. it was like driving up north to see the colors.