This is what we are made for: promises, pledges, and sworn oaths of obedience.

I was glad when the invalids were executed

....love and desire enjoy a symbiotic relationship, meaning that one cannot exist without the other. Desire is an enemy to contentment; desire is illness, a feverish brain. Who can be considered healthy who wants? The very word want suggests a lack, an impoverishment, and that is what desire is: an impoverishment of the brain, a flaw, a mistake.

Suicide. A sideways word, a word that people whisper and mutter and cough: a word that must be squeezed out behind cupped palms or murmured behind closed doors. It was only in dreams that I heard the word shouted, screamed.

I am now officially married to Fred Hargrove. Nothing will ever be the same.

There's always some relief in giving up.

It's funny how you can know your friends so well, but you still end up playing the same games with them.