“Everyone in my family always spares one another's feelings. It leaves little room for honesty.”

“Does it go away?" she asks. "Missing each other?" I think about how much I missed Maman. I still do, though it isnt as acute as it once was. "A little bit," I whisper."Enough so that life continues...”

“No. I don´t think it does go away. I know it won´t for me. I will keep busy. I will distract myself. I will eventually have days when I don´t have to remind myself to breathe. I know Nasrin will ex...”

“The heart was made to be broken.”

“He does something to me, that boy. Every time. Its his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry.”

“Was it hard?" I ask.Letting go?"Not as hard as holding on to something that wasn't real.”

“No one has imagined us. We want to live like trees,sycamores blazing through the sulfuric air,dappled with scars, still exuberantly budding,our animal passion rooted in the city.”

“Weight gains aren't failures they're learning curves.”

“I guess lesbianism wasn't so rampant in those days, they would've gotten a bunk with each other and just left me alone, you know. Which would have been just as well, you know..”

“What sexual preference do you hope she has? Happiness. Isnt that cool?”

“[Two respondents] minimized the assimilationist implications of the dominant account; Russ Silver rejects the idea entirely.I have no interest in being accepted. I consider this system corrupt, and...”

“For life is too short to resign ourselves to reading poorly written books and sleeping with women we don't love.”