You won't kiss me for diamonds," he said, his voice slightly raspy, "but you will for chocolates?" Poppy nodded.

Love me?” Madeline asked with a faint smile. “It used to be love.” He brushed his lips over her closed eyelids. “Now there's no word for it.” “You once told me that you thought love was a weakness.” “I was wrong,” he whispered, kissing the corners of her mouth. “I've discovered it's my only strength.

I'm one of those people who was meant to have a very ordinary life. I have no special talent, no great beauty, nothing that distinguishes me from a hundred, thousand other girls. But I can't go through an entire lifetime without at least one night of magic.

She heard the trace of fear in his voice. The fear that a small boy must have felt when every woman he loved had disappeared from his life, swept away by a merciless fever. She didn’t know how to reassure him, or how to console his long-ago grief.

Girlfriend, if you're waiting for a fairy godmother to show up with a dress and a ride, you're not going to make it to the party.

The way I was brought up ‘he needed killing’ is an airtight alibi.

...one can't avoid the storms and calamities of life, but one can at least find the right partner to face them with.