Some shadowy, self-destructive, confused place no longer existed inside me. I was of a single, clear mind. There were goals, and there were methods to attain them. There were my chosen responsibilities and those things I was willing to do to honor them. There were the things I was willing to live with and the things I wasn’t willing to live without. There was a quiet, deep abiding love of myself – flaws and all, and I had plenty – and the world around me, and it had plenty, too.
I’m not helping you, Ms. Lane. I’m entertaining the notion that you might be of use to me. If so, I need you alive.
At fourteen, I’d vowed, one day, I’d be the woman making him laugh, making joy blaze from his face, so tangible it seemed I might catch it in my hands.
You can’t do damage control dead.
I hate it when people throw big sweeping generalizations at you that you can’t even begin to interpret.
I hate sentences that begin with my name followed by the claim – indubitably erroneous – that the speaker knows something about me. Those kinds of sentences rank right up there with the ones that begin with You know what your problem is? That’s always a doozy. Talk about a trick question. Nothing worth hearing ever follows that preface.
Nothing touches her. To be touched is weakness.
Grief was a silenced wail that had no beginning or end, just a long, agonizing middle.
You would deceive me for a single kiss.” “I would raze worlds for a single kiss.” “Try saving one, for far more than that.
I never avoid battle. Tuck tail and run isn’t in my blood. Problem is, I only know two ways to fight: kill clean or kill messy – both of which involve killing unless I’m up against that feck Ryodan who can pluck me from hyperspeed and kick my ass ten ways to Tuesday.
I know why I’m obsessed with her. She’s the innocence I’ve lost. As I was going dark, she was getting nothing but brighter.
Once you start splitting hairs, trying to convince yourself some things are more acceptable to destroy, you’ve already lost the most important war.
I stepped inside and stopped, blinking in astonishment. From the exterior I’d expected a charming little book and curio shop with the inner dimensions of a university Starbucks. What I got was a cavernous interior that housed a display of books that made the library Disney’s Beast gave to Beauty on their wedding day look understocked.
Lose the pessimism, Ms. Lane,” Barrons said when I informed him of my thoughts. “It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Time will scar my wound and I’ll emerge from my fugue tougher, if not healed.
Life-giving, life-stealing, beautiful, a challenge to handle, worth learning to ride, full of fresh wonders every day – if he’d had a woman like the ocean in his bed, he’d still be there.
Humor is a girl’s best friend. The world’s a funny place.
I don’t convince nobody of nothing. You take me or leave me just the way I am! But I ain’t changing for you or nobody else and I ain’t faking either, and if you think breaking my bones one by one is going to accomplish a thing besides, like, breaking my bones, good luck with that!
The point is the three of you are dysfunctional, volatile, inefficient, and in my way.
Stunned, she looked down. Up. Down. Up again. Slowly. “Take your time, lass,” he murmured, so softly she scarcely heard him. His next comment was deliberately beyond her audible range, a silky “I plan to with you.