“Ammu loved her children (of course), but their wide-eyed vulnerability and their willingness to love people who didn't really love them exasperated her and sometimes made her want to hurt them-- just as an education, a precaution.”

“He loved her beyond all reason and didn't expect her to love him back. He was just waiting for her to wise up.”

“It made her pure, and those we love must be pure, otherwise we can't love them. But loving a person is also making her pure. (p. 189)”

“Tell her that you love her hair, that you love her skin, her lips, because, in truth, you love them more than you love your own.”

“To see her is to love her,
And love but her forever;
For Nature made her what she is,
And never made anither!”

“There comes a point when you just love someone. Not because they're good, or bad, or anything really. You just love them. It doesn't mean you'll be together forever. It doesn't mean you won't hurt each other. It just mean you love them. Sometimes in spite of who they are, and sometimes because of who they are. And you know that they love you, sometimes because of who you are, and sometimes in spite of it.”

“And it was good just to hold her and touch the softness of her skin. He wanted to hold her hard, not to hurt her but to keep her safe, to show her that he was strong enough to protect her. Her beauty was like fire and strange music, and he loved her.”

“People who are harder to love pose a challenge, and the challenge makes them easier to love. You're driven to love them. People who want their love easy don't really want love.”

“… and her dreams that didn't happen, that couldn't have happened because she'd pinned them on somebody too broken and unattainable to love her back.”

“When the woman showed her love for the children that were not her own, and wept over them, I saw in her the living God, and understood What men live by.”