“I have loved you all my life, Mal," I whispered through my tears. "There is no end to our story.”

“Do you answer a question directly?""Hard to say. Ah, there, I've done it again”

“He doesnt need a donkey, says Ana Kuya. He has a wife.”

“I opened my mouth, but the same words came to me again and again.I will not scream. I will not scream. I will not scream.”

“The ox feels the yoke, but does the bird feel the weight of its wings?”

“Mal snickered. "What's so funny?""I just pictured the Darkling being cornered by a sweaty duchess trying to have her way with him.”

“I have loved you all my life, Mal," I whispered through my tears. "There is no end to our story.”

“The moment our lips met, I knew with pure and piercing certainty that I would have waited for him forever.”

“Mal snickered. "What's so funny?""I just pictured the Darkling being cornered by a sweaty duchess trying to have her way with him.”

“The word I think of is precarious. I am struck by how precarious it all is. How the things that hold us are only as strong as the faith we have in them.”

“faith gaped at him"how the hell did you do this?" He looked at her as if she'd asked the dumbest question in history. "I'm brilliant.”

“But it wasnt. Sex is not the most intimate thing two lovers can do. Even when the sex is beautiful. Even when its perfect. Millie drew a deep breath as if she remembered how perfect it had truly be...”

“Though there had yet to be a victor in this great war that had begun almost three years ago, Maurice had written to her that they had, all of them, on all sides, lost their freedom. Freedom to thin...”

“Then I thought, boy, isn't that just typical? You wait and wait and wait for something, and then when it happens, you feel sad.”

“I'm living under water. Everything seems slow and far away. I know there's a world up there, a sunlit quick world where time runs like dry sand through an hourglass, but down here, where I am, air ...”