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the moon is always jealous of the heat of the day, just as the sun always longs for something dark and deep.
“My lover’s heart will feel this pin, and his devotion I will win. There’ll be no way for him to rest nor sleep, until he comes to me to speak. Only when he loves me best will he find peace, and with peace, rest.”
What had she thought, that love was a toy, something easy and sweet, just to play with? Real love was dangerous, it got you from inside and held on tight, and if you didn’t let go fast enough you might be willing to do anything for its sake.
Goodness, in their opinion, was not a virtue but merely spinelessness and fear disguised as humility.
This insect, which marks off time, clicking like a clock, issues the sound no one ever wants to hear beside her beloved. A man’s tenure on earth is limited enough, but once the beetle’s ticking begins there’s no way to stop it; there’s no plug to pull, no pendulum to stop, no switch that will restore the time you once thought you had.
she cried and wished she had never fallen in love in the first place. It had made her too helpless, because that’s what love did.
Some fates are guaranteed, no matter who tries to intervene.
“You can’t fall apart,” Gillian would insist in her rich, urgent voice. “That’s my job,”
“Life is for the living,” Gillian told her. “Life is what you make of it.
sometimes the right thing felt all wrong until it was over and done with.
Sometimes, running away means you’re headed in the exact right direction.
CROSSED knives set out on the dinner table means there’s bound to be a quarrel, but so do two sisters living under the same roof,
Antonia is so beautiful that it’s impossible for any stranger seeing her for the first time to even begin to guess how miserable she can make those closest to her. She is nastier now than she was as a little girl,
Never believe what you can’t see,
You have nothing to fear but fear itself,
A halo around the moon is always a sign of disruption, either a change in the weather, a fever to come, or a streak of bad fortune that won’t go away. But when it’s a double ring, all tangled and snarled, like an agitated rainbow or a love affair gone wrong, anything can happen.
Trouble is just like love, after all; it comes in unannounced and takes over before you’ve had a chance to reconsider, or even to think.
Because of her family history, she has a real abandonment anxiety, which is why she’s always the first to leave.
“You should have just left him.” Gillian nods. “I should have never said hello to him. That was my first mistake.”
In time, you can get used to anything, including fear.
It’s amazing the places that love will carry you. It’s astounding to discover just how far you’re willing to go.
A man who doesn’t close his eyes, even for a kiss, is a man who wants to keep control at all times.
No one knows you like a person with whom you’ve shared a childhood. No one will ever understand you in quite the same way.
“Work,” Scott says ruefully. “Hell with a paycheck.”
a man’s ghost reflects who he was and everything he’s ever done.
Maria was young and pretty, but she dressed all in black and didn’t have a husband.
But love was not about practice and preparation, it was pure chance; if you took your time with it you ran the risk of having it evaporate before it had even begun.
As they were falling asleep, Gillian could have sworn she heard Ben say Fate—as if they were meant to be together from the start and every single thing they’d ever done in their lives had been leading to this moment. If you thought that way, you could fall asleep without regret. You could put your whole life in place, with all the sadness and the sorrow, and still feel that at last you had everything you’d ever wanted. In spite of the lousy odds and all the wrong turns, you might actually discover that you were the one who’d won.
When he looked at her in this way, she understood why she’d been so drawn to him, and why she was still. He could make it seem as though you were the only person in the universe; a bomb could fall, lightning could strike, he simply would not take his eyes off you.
Pride is a funny thing; it can make what is truly worthless appear to be a treasure. As soon as you let go of it, pride shrinks to the size of a fly, but one that has no head, and no tail, and no wings with which to lift itself off the ground.
“I never even believed in happiness. I didn’t think it existed. Now look at me. I’m ready to believe in just about anything.”
Lightning, like love, is never ruled by logic. Accidents happen, and they always will.
What sets him apart from most of his colleagues is that he likes murder.
think. It’s figuring out the why of things; the final factor that makes a person act can be so damn elusive, but you can always find some motivation, if you look hard enough.
most everything. You can usually uncover the truth, or a version of it at any rate, if you ask enough questions;
His grandfather told him once that witches caught you in this way—they knew how much most men love themselves and how deeply they’ll let themselves be drawn in, just for a glimpse of their own image. If you ever come face to face with a woman like this, his grandfather told him, turn and run, and don’t judge yourself a coward.
He’s heard about this happening to other men. They’re going about their business one minute, and suddenly there’s no hope for them. They fall in love so hard they never again get up off their knees.
He has the ability to catch someone by the way he looks at her, and make her wish he would go on looking.
He’s the kind of man you’d never want to lose once you’d finally found him.
If you go against what you believe in, you’re nothing anyway, so you might as well stick to your guns.
some mistakes come back to haunt you again and again, no matter how certain you are that they’ve finally been put to rest.
From the very start, Sally has been lying to herself, telling herself she can handle anything, and she doesn’t want to lie anymore.
This is the way it has to be. She’ll be removed forever, distant as stars, unhurt and untouched, forever and ever.
It’s actually true, what they say about asking for help. Take a deep breath and it hurts a whole lot less to admit it out loud.
They believe that every problem has a solution, although it may not be the outcome that was originally hoped for or expected.
Some things, when they change, never do return to the way they once were. Butterflies, for instance, and women who’ve been in love with the wrong man too often.
Attraction, she now understands, is a state of mind.
“Don’t screw this one up,” she tells her niece. “I don’t intend to,” Gillian assures her.
If there’s one thing Sally is now certain of, it’s how you can amaze yourself by the things you’re willing to do.
She knows now that when you don’t lose yourself in the bargain, you find you have double the love you started with, and that’s one recipe that can’t be tampered with.
