“She had to face the fact that she couldn't protect everyone she loved. She couldn't solve every problem.”

“And all the time she felt the reflection of his hopelessness in her. She couldn't quite, quite love in hoplessness. And he, being hopeless, couldn't ever love at all.”

“Yeah, I loved her. I couldn't help it. She was my brother.”

“I met Courtney Love and she said she'd like to sleep with me, but she couldn't cos of my "pop-star thing"… so I said to her I couldn't sleep with her either - cos of her 'ugly thing'…”

“A true woman loves a strong man because she knows his weaknesses. She protects as much as she is protected.”

“You can't solve problems by running away from them, it was said, and like the good child she had once been, she had believed this. But it wasn't true. Some problems could only be solved by running away from them.”

“she was glad she had been scarred. She said that whoever loved her now would love her true self, and not her pretty face.”

“She opened her mouth like a firebucket and laughed. That terminated my interest in her. I couldn't hear the laugh but the hole in her face when she unzippered her teeth was all I needed.”

“She was dull, unattractive, couldn't tell the time, count money or tie her own shoe laces… But I loved her”

“She was the stone-faced queen, then and ever after. She had needed the mask to rule, and she had been glad to have it. She wondered if Eugenides was glad of his.”