Because everything worth having hurts.

No name-calling truly bites deep unless, in some dark part of us, we believe it. If we are confident enough then it is just noise.

Love is too precious to be ashamed of.

But if anything will turn me off, it's a very practiced approach, as if the man has done it a thousand times before, to a lot of different women. Which always seems to imply that I am no different from all the rest. Not flattering.

Self-doubt is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Sometimes it's not the optimist you need, but another pessimist to walk beside you and know, absolutely know, that the sound in the dark is a monster, and it really is as bad as you think. Did that sound hopeless? It didn't feel hopeless. It felt reassuring. It felt - real.

He's not going to shoot us in the back by accident, is he?" Deputy Coltrain asked. I smiled, not sweetly. "He promised not to.