Feeling special is the worst kind of cage a person can build for himself.

[Their love] had burned itself out, like a forgotten candle in an empty room, leaving behind a ravenous discontent.

In fact, they didn't talk much at all, but they spent time together, each in his own abyss, held safe and tight by the other's silence.

They lived the slow and invisible interpenetration of their universes, like two stars gravitating around a common axis, in ever tighter orbits, whose clear destiny is to coalesce at some point in space and time.

Separating them were two layers of brick, a few inches of plaster, and nine years of silence.

She hadn't chosen him over all the others. The truth was that she hadn't even thought about anyone else.

You'll get used to it. In the end you won't even notice it anymore," he said. "How is that possible? It will always be there, right before my eyes." "Exactly," said Mattia. "Which is precisely why you won't see it anymore.