An intelligent lady, a little too mature for recklessness, a little too young for caution.

Give me a strong back, over a soft heart.

Find out what people want to do, then tell them to do it. They'll think you're a genius.

She'd stood by that creed. No softness, because the world wasn't soft lots of laughter, because if you were in on the joke, the joke couldn't be on you And no wanting what you couldn't take, because the world never gave. Or so she'd thought.

She clutched the train ticket tighter and waited for the sense of escape to come over her as it had a dozen times before, that heady sensation of having just scooted through the clanging gate, of eluding the thrown net. It didn't come. She was running again, but she wasn't escaping. She'd been chased to ground a long, long time ago.

Conscience is like a pet: If you spoil it by too much attention it'll start yipping at the most inopportune times.

No one ever fell in love gracefully.

I am no good without you, Ginesse,” he said. “I spent a lifetime alone, but I never understood loneliness until I was away from you. I never understood happiness until I saw you again.