“I respect the hell out of her for how hard shes working to be okay. I just wish shed let me show her how to let go, how to let herself hurt. I want to take her pain.”

“Hot heart-blood leaked from my face. From my eyes and my nose and my mouth. Not tears, because those would never stop. This was just liquid heartbreak seeping from my pores.”

“But we have to learn to be free. We have to, Nell. Doesn't mean happy all the time, or okay all the time. Its okay not to be okay. I told you that, but I'm relearning it myself. But not being okay ...”

“But I think youre beautiful. Youre lovely. I shifted uncomfortably under the intense scrutiny and prickling heat in his eyes. Thanks? He thinks I'mlovely? The idea that Kyle thought I was not just ...”

“It wasn't supposed to. It was just supposed to stop you from hurting yourself. It helps No it doesn't. It just pushes it away temporarily. Just like the booze. But I need You need to let yourself f...”

“Its not okay, I tell her. This gets her attention; its not what she was expecting. You dont have to be okay. What do you want from me? Her voice is ragged, desperate. I want you to let yourself be ...”

“To find out if she really loved me, I hooked her up to a lie detector. And just as I suspected, my machine was broken.”

“We should love, not fall in love, because everything that falls, gets broken.”

“Who fixes broken people? Is it only other broken people, ones who've already been ruined? And do we need to be fixed? It was the messiness and hurt in our pasts that drove us, and that same hurt co...”

“I respect the hell out of her for how hard shes working to be okay. I just wish shed let me show her how to let go, how to let herself hurt. I want to take her pain.”

“But we have to learn to be free. We have to, Nell. Doesn't mean happy all the time, or okay all the time. Its okay not to be okay. I told you that, but I'm relearning it myself. But not being okay ...”

“She closes her eyes, and I can see the moisture. Shes deep-breathing again, and I notice her hands are clutched around the opposing wrists, nails digging in deep, hard, scratching. Pain to replace ...”

“Time was passing like a hand waving from a train I wanted to be on. I hope you never have to think about anything as much as I think about you.”

“The door', replied Maimie, 'will always, always be open, and mother will always be waiting at it for me.”

“I search for love frantically... and quitting at the last moment by making excuse for myself that I've tried”