“Birthing is never easy or without pain, be it a universe, a child, or a fresh start in life. Contraction precedes expansion. Darkness comes before dawn. Joy follows pain. This is the way of things.”

“Opening to love will always involve risk,but a heart safe from pain is one also locked to joy.”

“Sadness is a bruise on the skin of memory.”

“His heart was like a battered guitar; worn and scuffed from a life spentout on the road, but still capableof bringing forth beautiful music.”

“I am no blank slate for love to write on.My heart has walls marred with cracks,bloodstains, and bullet holes;graffitied over by past lovers.”

“Strangely incurious, her lovers from before. She has worlds within I'm longing to explore.”

“For every inch of skin, there is memory. Devils are so made. Saints, too, if you believe in them. His humanity has been broken as an old walking stick that once held up a crippled man named Thomas....”

“It frightens me that I can't do anything sensible about it.""Are you scared that you'll wind up with a boring job where you have to see the same people every day and drink instant coffee?""I'm more...”

“She'd be dead before the memories and pain were finally gone; she knew it, accepted it, and dealt with it.”

“Pain is not the same as suffering. Left to itself, the body discharges pain spontaneously, letting go of it the moment that the underlying cause is healed. Suffering is pain that we hold on to. It ...”

“In pleasant peace and security How suddenly the soul in a man begins to die He shall look up above the stalled oxen Envying the cruel falcon, And dig under the straw for a stone To bruise himself on.”

“It is amazing, though, what pains your subconscious will undergo in achieve sustainable peace.”

“All I'd ever wanted was to forget. but even when I thought I had, pieces had kept emerging, like bits of wood floating up to the surface that only hint at the shipwreck below.”

“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.”

“I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”