Quotes by Jill Alexander Essbaum

“But pain is an impatient customer. It wouldn't be long before it demanded attention.”

“Annas conclusions were these: That fire is beautifully cruel. That fusion occurs only at a specific heat. That blood, in fact, can boil. That the dissolution of an affair is an entropic reaction, a...”

“There are no accidents, Anna. Everything correlates. Everything connects. Every detail bears a consequence. One instant begets the next. And the next. And the next.”

“Even the ugliest swan is still more beautiful than the loveliest crown on the fence, Anna thought”

“Anna loved and didnt love sex. Anna needed and didnt need it. Her relationship with sex was a convoluted partnership that rose from both her passivity and an unassailable desire to be distracted.”

“It doesnt matter whether you believe in ghosts. The ghosts believe in you.”

“Is that not always the case? Given any two people in a relationship, one will always love more, the other less. Right?”

“Four simple chambers.A thousand complicated doors.One of them is yours.”

“A man can smell a woman's sadness”

“Solitude was her anchor. A familiar misery, and anymore the safest, most sensible approach.”

“The deepest sleep is meant only for children and perfect fools.”

“A mistake made once is an oversight. The same mistake made twice? An abberation. A blunder. But a third time?" Doktor Messerli shook her head. "Whatever's been done has been done to an end. Your wi...”

“Ive never been nearly as alone as I always say I am”

“Walling herself off circumvented the risk of real closeness between two people and the eventual, unavoidable loss that always accompanies love. Liberating herself from the concern of others served ...”

“A secret's safest hiding place is in the open.”

“But there are times to talk to the dead, times when the dead want to talk.”

“Ghosts, Doktor Messerli continued, arent always the spirits of the human dead bound to the earth. A ghost can be the residual feeling that follows an act you have accomplished but feel bad about. O...”

“Shames the shadow of love she thought”

“Even the loveliest shoulders can bear but so much.”

“Lets get you one, Anna.A lover?Edith rolled her eyes. No. A fucking houseplant. Yes, a lover. Edith smirked. Itll cheer you up!”