“And then there are the rare ones who know love, who understand it. Who freely give of themselves, demanding only a return of that love,that trust.”

“Plan B?' Ivy said. 'What is plan B?'Jenks reddened. 'Grab the fish and run like hell,' he muttered, and I almost giggled.”

“Ivy!' I stammered, then glared at Kisten. 'You told Ivy? Thanks a hell of a lot. Want to call my mom next?”

“You look like the vamp who bled the cat.”

“You had this all planned, didnt you?' I accused. 'Thought you could come in here and seduce me like you do everyone else?' It wasnt as if I could be angry, lying atop him as I was, but I tried.”

“Big lots,' I said, seeing the eighty-year-old oaks and shady lawns. The houses were set way back and had iron fences and stone drives. The harder to hear your neighbors scream, my dear,' was Davids...”

“Those whom we most love are often the most alien to us.”

“He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began.”

“Ivan tells Anna: "I used to imagine that being embraced by a woman . . . as something so wonderful that it would make me forget everthing . . . [But] happiness, it turns out, will be to share with ...”

“Sometimes it's not enough to know what things mean, sometimes you have to know what things don't mean.”

“Dont cry and dont rage. Understand.”

“The only way to heal yourself was to understand. Understand the love or the hate or the cowardice, or the impulsiveness, the lack of will of the one who hurt you--the circumstances that twisted the...”