“I was terrified of my weakness, of my sharp tongue, ofmy every flaw. I was terrified that this moment, my chance tolive in happiness for however short a time we may have had,would be ruined because...”

“What must it be like to have such faith in the world, in plans, in your own ability to control your fate? It was contagious, that's what it was. I could not help it. I caught his hope like a plague.”

“I tried very hard not to ponder the horrible irony that I was too ugly to love, and too ugly not to violate.”

“Sex was lovely. Sex was sublime. Sex was flesh and cock and suck and fuck and come. This night sex was starlight. Sex was oxygen. Sex was us, and we were beautiful, beautiful and perfect in each ot...”

“Nostalgia can be more painful than a surgeon's knife.”

“...good words - that triumphalism of positivity- but life will claw and eat you - chew you over and over - if you carry such a small knife ...”

“Sometimes I wished I could cut away old memories and let the wind take them. If a sharp knife could pare away the weakness of those days, I would slice until nothing but the hard lessons remained.”

“My self-esteem is Teflon coated, baby.”

“And now he smiled at me. All teeth. The way only people who hadnt learned self-consciousnessknew how to smile.”

“Getting caught is what I do best. It is either a natural talent (which means we can blame my family genes) or a well-hewn craft (in which case we can still blame my parents).”