“Because letting someone in close meant they could hurt you. I knew all about that kind of fear. I lived with it.”

“I knew you loved me and that you'd do anything for me. And that was one of the reasons it hurt so much when you ended it, Dawson. Because I knew even then how rare that kind of love is. Only the luckiest people get to experience it at all.”

“I have to tell you it was the first time even after all these years of expecting my own death that i truly knew what it meant to die because with you gone there was nothing left for me to live for.”

“Once you let yourself grow close to someone, cutting the ties could be painful.”

“Ah," said Mr Pin. "Right. I remember. You are concerned citizens." He knew about concerned citizens. Wherever they were, they all spoke the same private language, where 'traditional values' meant 'hang someone'.”

“I always hated when my scars started to fade, because as long as I could still see them, I knew why I was hurting.”

“The only thing for it is to use men for sex and never let any of them get so close they could hurt you.”

“It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy. And if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back.”

“And I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old kind of world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain, and she was holding it and pleading, never to let her go.”

“You don't know me, but I know about you… I can't make you live longer. I can't stop you from hurting. But I can give you one wish, as someone did for me.”