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This, explained the angel, is hell. The people do not love each other. They only want to feed themselves.

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This isn’t lust. Lust wants, does the obvious, and pads back into the forest. Love is greedier. Love wants round-the-clock care; protection; rings, vo...more

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Anna would like you, he thinks, looking into her face. Anna would like you.

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Orito banishes all thoughts of Jacob de Zoet, and recalls Jacob de Zoet.

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We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love.

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A single night is stuffed with minutes, but they leak out, one by one.

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Here’s the truth: Who is spared love is spared grief.

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If the human condition were the periodic table, maybe love would be hydrogen at No. 1. Death would be helium at No. 2. Power, I reckon, would be where...more

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Every relationship has its own language. It takes a long time to evolve and read one another. Just as it's true for people, it's also true on a nation...more

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I’d always worried but kissing’s not so tricky. Your lips know what to do, just like sea anenomes know what to do. Kissing spins you, like Flying Tea-...more

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Perfume counters in department stores, Holly Deblin smells of, the middle of July, and cinnamon Tic Tacs.

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Photos’re better than nothing, but things’re better than photos ’cause the things themselves were part of what was there.

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Will I be some kid’s dad one day? Are any future people lurking deep inside mine?...Which girl’s carrying the other half of my kid, deep in those intr...more

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Finished in a frenzy that reminded me of our last night in Cambridge. Watched my final sunrise. Enjoyed a last cigarette. Didn’t think the view could ...more

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A half-read book is a half-finished love affair.