"She thought she was independent and strong, but she got one small taste of love and she was hungrier than anyone. She was ravenous."
"When she is happy, she can't stop talking, when she is sad she doesn't say a word."
"Sex could be a blissful communion,. But it could also be a weapon, and its absence, sometimes, was required for the establishment of peace."
"When you feel someone else's pain and joy as powerfully as if it were your own, then you know you really loved them."
"Try, reach, want, and you may fall. But even if you do, you might be okay anyway. If you don't try, you save nothing, because you might as well be dead."
"How sad it was, Carmen thought, that you acted awful when you were desperately sad and hurt and wanted to be loved. How tragic then, the way everyone avoided you and tiptoed around you when you really needed them. Carmen knew this vicious predicament as well as anyone in the world. How bitter it felt when you acted badly to everyone and ended up hating yourself the most."