"He clearly suffers from some past traumas too, so hopefully he'll understand why I was untruthful to him about mine."

"The male tax?'Yeah. The tax that men have to pay for not having to menstruate every month. Or risk getting pregnant. Or deal with the physically stronger sex in a macho world Women have to put up with all that stuff, so the least we men can do is pay the male tax and get the tab."

"Compartmentalization is an unconscious psychological defense mechanism employed to avoid cognitive dissonance."

"Paradoxically, the more Michael kept me at a distance, the more I trusted him - perhaps because he was always willing to help me with tips and introductions even though he wanted absolutely nothing from me (and never reciprocated my nosiness with personal questions of his own with me)."

"My past still haunts me when I sleep, although I saw that - much to my surprise- his does as well."

"So your theory would seem to be that lying to yourself is no lie at all because you haven't deceived any third party. And if you then convince yourself of those lies, you'll believe them enough to repeat them to other with the genuine conviction that they're true. 'Something like that, I conceded uneasily."

"Isn't it better just to make your own money, and then spend it how and when you want, and with dignity?"

"I'm not sure. But " unless I'm struggling with the darkness within " I like to sustain the illusion that death is actually much further from me than it really is."

"Sometimes violence is necessary to prevent even more violence, I concluded, almost as if it were an epiphany."