"The best way to guard your heart was to trust a good man to take care of it for you."

"The library serves as a gathering place for friends whoshare the love of books. It further serves as a resource for those who escape the pressure of everydaylife, doing it by losing themselves in the written word."

"Don't go woman on me and tell me you don't need a man to complete you. It's bullshit. Woman looks like you, goddamn waste. But a woman who has the love you got to give, that's not a waste. That's a crying shame."

"Because he tells me. All the fucking time. I'm precious to him and I know it because he shows me and he tells me. It's beautiful. It's real. It's right."

"I wasn't exactly good with children. I wasn't bad with them, as such. I just wasn't around them much and, because of that, when I was, they freaked me out because I didn't know what to do with them."

"How lonely I was, even when I was with him. How it felt, him not making love to me, being affectionate, making me feel desired or desirable. How much it bothered me that, even though I'd talked to him about all of this, even wrote him other e-mails, it didn't ever seem to penetrate."

"My girl, always hated frogs, Jackie stated when she'd controlled her hilarity.'That's right, Mom, Feb leveled her irate eyes at her mother, 'I'm a girl therefore I hate frogs. I'd get kicked out of the girl club if I didn't."

"No one knows what goes down between a woman and her man except that woman. Only thing they know is what went down with their own men."

"I never dreamed any fuckin' dream,' he whispered, and the smile faded from her face as tears filled her eyes.She understood him.'Shy-'Didn't dream it, saw it, waited my time, and then you gave it to me."

"I'd once had a long-term relationship with a Five Point Five that got nowhere near living together. This was because I was a Two Point Five, he was a Five Point Five and he wanted a Nine Point Five. Therefore, we were both destined for a broken heart. He gave me mine. He later found a Six Point Five that wanted a Nine Point Five. She got herself a breast enhancement and nose job which made her a firm Seven (if you didn't count the fact that she thought she was a Ten point Five and acted like it which really knocked her down to a Six) who broke his heart."

"I looked to the ceiling and told God, 'God, next time I want an adventure, strike me with lightning. You have my permission."

"Home isn't a place.Home is anywhere, just as long as the people you love are there."

"Thank you for keeping it a secret. There aren't many of those in this tribe."

"Compassion is often mistaken for weakness, when the fact is, there is very little that is more powerful than the courage it takes to give it."

"Romance novels. My guess? She started reading them early. My guess? She started them at a time where they made a huge impression on her and changed her perceptions. She isn't cocooned, she pays attention and she knows there are no men out there like the men in those books she reads so she prefers being with them than trying to find someone like them which, she thinks, is a fruitless endeavor. That fantasy is far better than any reality and, you know what? She's right. Men are a pain in the ass and a lot of them are dicks who cause heartbreak. And her, a girl life Faye? Well, she knows she's the kind of girl men like that will chew up and spit out. So she's smart and she's not going to go there."

"Even though I felt like crying, I did my very best to smile."

"You fight with Niles?' Max asked suddenly.'No.'Never?'No! And stop asking about Niles,' I demanded.He ignored my demand and kept questioning. 'Didn't care enough to fight, didn't match you in fire, or was so lazy he just put up with your shit?"

"Balls to ten minutes."

"Vayoo ansha.I shook my head and whispered, 'Never. For good and always, you have lost me. Na me lapay kahLahn. Not anymore."

"She nodded, grabbed her purse out of the drawer and skedaddled, walking like she was on a catwalk, one foot in front of the other, her ass swaying under the skirt of her expensive, tailored suit.Bitch. I thought again, watching her go.'No comparison, Luke said after the door closed behind Dawn and I turned to him.'Excuse me?'Dawn's a man eater. You're not. No comparison, Luke answered and I didn't know how to take that.'Is that good?The half-smile came back.'Most men prefer to do the eating.Holy fucking cow."

"Forgiveness is beautiful and it feels good when someone gives that gift to you. But it's one thing for someone you wronged to forgive you. It was another to forgive yourself."

"How you feel about marrying me?' he asked in my ear."

"I couldn't ignore the fact that it felt good. So. Very. Good. To be held, in bed, in the arms of a tall, strong, handsome man."

"You'd throw yourself in front of a bus for me.She would and he knew it.He knew it and she knew that he felt that knowledge burrow deep and he liked it.Elle felt tears stinging the backs of her eyes, her body melted into his,her arms tightened around him and she whispered back, 'Yes,Pren,though I hope I never get the chance."

"When we faced Mom, we saw she was addressing Max. 'We get to know each other I'll get to hug you.' 'Mom!' I snapped and Mom turned to me. 'I get to do it when he doesn't have a shirt on too. I'm calling it now,' Mom declared."

"That Damon Matthews, Linda spat. 'You know, take one letter out of his name and it spells ' damn' as in 'damn, that kid's a worthless sonovabitch'."

"With women, it's about the slow soak, babe. Assholes pour shit on the surface and women keep goin' not even knowin' that shit is soakin' in. Then one day, out of fuckin' nowhere, that acid has burned deep in a way it leaves a wound that will never heal. Wipe that shit away, Lanie. Don't let it soak in. He doesn't know me. He cannot make that call about me."

"These boys talk more than a pack ofwomen."

"I may have mentioned patience wasn't one of my virtues. Actually, I didn't have many virtues but patience definitely wasn't one of them."

"He flipped it open, gently tugged out the oft-touched photo and looked into a pair of familiar golden eyes. 'She's happy, Andie,' he whispered to his wife. Andromeda Quinn did what she always did. She smiled back at him, her beautiful eyes lit with that bright, golden light Harold Quinn loved so fucking much."

"Being on the moon is about harnessing science and technology. Waveless waterbeds are about harnessing nature and that, by definition, is not natural, I shot back.'Babe, you're not lyin' on a miracle, he said through a lip twitch.'No, I'm lying under one."

"Not one fuckin' thing gentlemanly about protecting what's yours. Looks like you're gonna lose it, you do everything you can to stop that from happening. Max looked back to Niles. 'And you didn't do that. She was a week away from me, she walked into a room I was in holdin' another man's hand, I'd lose my fuckin' mind. Not at her. Wonderin' where I lost my way and I'd talk to her about how to find my way back."

"May feel like you're fallin', Tabby, but remember, I'm at the bottom ready to catch you.'At these beautiful words, I burst into tears again.Without hesitation, Shy yanked me back into his arms and held me.There it was.I'd reached bottom and I was crying , because I didn't realize it at the time, but he'd already caught me.And it felt beautiful!"

"Bard eyed him like he was manure on her shoes at the same time she did things, like sharpen a wooden stake, something she knew didn't work on him, but that was not her point, even if she was making one."

"Wars fought over a face like this, he murmured like he was talking to himself, my heart stopped beating and his thumbs moved lightly across my cheeks. 'A man would work himself into the ground for it, go down to his knees to beg to keep it, endure torture to protect it, take a bullet for it, his eyes came to mine, 'poison his brother to possess a face like this."

"Food is love,' I replied.'No, babe, it ain't. But makin' it for the ones you love so they can brag about it is,' Take returned."

"I used to sleep the sleep of someone who knew she was loved. Now, I didn't."