“I dont have to let anyone use me. I dont have to bend the truth. Even if Im not ready to forgive just yet, I dont have to be tied to my scars, to the people who wounded me, or to the anger and fear...”

“Nerve endings. Thats what it all comes down to. Billions of rooted synapses, like trees entwined in erratic soil. Lightning strikes every millionth of a second, the charges scattering across the ga...”

“But when youre a kid, it isnt chaos. Its just a heartbeat. Your house isnt floating through space, it sits on the ground. Once you get old enough you start to see that color is just paint and doors...”

“It was truebut it was harsh. And it feels like maybe a harsh truth can be as hurtful as a lie.”

“I wonder if this is how it feels to grow old. Knowing that time is still passing but youre no longer a part of it.”

“How much dust can a body make? Little specks of death. Measuring life in millimeters.”

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of wi...”

“My dear,Find what you love and let it kill you.Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness.Let it kill you and let it devour your remains....”

“If you gave someone your heart and they died, did they take it with them? Did you spend the rest of forever with a hole inside you that couldn't be filled?”

“If pain must come, may it come quickly. Because I have a life to live, and I need to live it in the best way possible. If he has to make a choice, may he make it now. Then I will either wait for hi...”

“Well, nowIf little by little you stop loving meI shall stop loving youLittle by littleIf suddenly you forget meDo not look for meFor I shall already have forgotten youIf you think it long and mad t...”

“Most things are forgotten over time. Even the war itself, the life-and-death struggle people went through is now like something from the distant past. Were so caught up in our everyday lives that e...”

“No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories.”

“Do you know what pain is, Cammie? Its thebodys physical response to imminent harm.It is the minds way of telling us to move ourhand off the stove or let go of the brokenglass.”

“A sad lesson that was mine to learn is that you can't lose what was never truly yours. Nor can you hold to things that simply do not wish to be held.”