...the horrific fact that our lives and those of the people we love are impermanent and exquisitely fragile, that any of us can cease to exist without warning, that loving anyone, anywhere, at any time, leaves you infinitely vulnerable at every single moment. (20)

We are, all of us, crippled and twisted. Most of us strive desperately to keep our grotesqueries out of sight and mind. Our suffering is transformed by an alchemy of the soul into addiction, ulcers, strokes, hatred, even war.

My throat tightened, but I held back the tears and reminded myself that withdrawing from a woman is no different than kicking a drug; you feel shaky and you want it, but eventually the need passes, and you feel restored.

What was it about not knowing a person that allowed you to wonder whether she might be the answer to all your problems?

Plenty of people who survive tragedies end up ambivalent about danger--frightened by it, yet strangely drawn to it.

A jealous husband is an ugly thing.

But insight doesn't necessarily produce self-control. Sometimes you just see your destructiveness more clearly.