“Sometimes, she reflected, she dressed for courage, sometimes for success, and sometimes for the consolation of knowing that whatever else went wrong, at least she liked her clothes.”

“She had always liked this image of herself as too much trouble, as different, and she sometimes thought of it as a carapace that kept her safe.”

“Shay sometimes talked in a mysterious way, like she was quoting the lyrics of some band no one else listened to.”

“Sometimes, she thought, courage was simply a matter of putting one foot in front of another and not stopping.”

“Sometimes a woman's love of being loved gets the better of her conscience, and though she is agonized at the thought of treating a man cruelly, she encourages him to love her while she doesn't love him at all. Then, when she sees him suffering, her remorse sets in, and she does what she can to repair the wrong.”

“She was a wicked thing sometimes. All full of want. As if the shape of the world depended on her mood. As if she were important.”

“He was the one she was doing all this for, but sometimes she missed him so much it felt like she swallowed broken glass.”

“And although she was sometimes dissatisfied with herself, she felt unable to go beyond her own limitations. Books were safer.”

“Eh! sire, that is the fate of truth; she is a stern companion; she bristles all over with steel; she wounds those whom she attacks, and sometimes him who speaks her.”

“She herself is a haunted house. She does not possess herself; her ancestors sometimes come and peer out of the windows of her eyes and that is very frightening.”