“If I ever do get married," Tariq said, "they'll have to make room for three on the wedding stage. Me, the bride, and the guy holding the gun to my head”

“Whenever I get married, I start buying Gourmet magazine. I think of it as my own personal bride's disease.”

“I know that if I ever have the audacity to blame fate or God for holding a gun to my temple, I also have the wherewithal to remind myself that if I end up with a hole in my head, I was the one who pulled the trigger.”

“Tariq tucked the gun into the waist of his denims. Then he said a thing both lovely and terrible. "For you," he said. "I'd kill with it for you, Laila.”

“Weddings are never about the bride and groom, weddings are public platforms for dysfunctional families.”

“Never… ever suggest they don't have to pay you. What they pay for, they'll value. What they get for free, they'll take for granted, and then demand as a right. Hold them up for all the market will bear.”

“And never will I wed.
I'll hunt the pearl of death to the bottom of my life,
and ever hold my breath,
till I may be the diver's wife.”

“Well, what I mean is that I shouldn't mind being a bride at a wedding, if I could be one without having a husband.”

“Getting hit motivates me. It makes me punish the guy more. A fighter takes a punch, hits back with three punches.”

“Ever since college, I make friends. They get married. I lose friends.”