Words, Words, Words.

You can beat anybody... so long as you don’t let them fight back properly.

She hadn’t dreamed, thankfully. She hated dreams. They either showed her a life she couldn’t have, or a life that terrified her. What was the good of either one?

... Anytime you can make someone else feel something, you’ve got power over them.

She was strong and vulnerable all at once. … She had a way of pouring everything of herself into what she did. When she fought, she was the blade. When she loved, she was the kiss. In that regard, she was far more… human than any I have ever known.

Think of me as a guide. Think of yourself as a wanderer in a dark wood. It’s about to get darker.

As they say: if you aren’t looking, you don’t see.

They said calm things like 'You need to be strong.' They were trying to make things better. But it can put a lot of pressure on a person to be told they need to be strong. That’s another thing I’ve learned.

Keep steady, I told myself. Don’t share too much about yourself, it will be used against you. Listen carefully. Save all clues. Don’t show fear.

I want to be held and told my name. I want to be valued, in ways that I am not; I want to be more than valuable.

[She] kissed boys for all kinds of reasons—because they were cute, because she was a little drunk, because she was bored, because they let her, because it was fun, because they looked lonely, because it blotted out her fears for a while, because she wasn’t sure how many kisses she had left.

Ordinary... is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary.

You're safe here. Perfectly safe. That phrase still haunts me. Haunts me because it's always been a lie. It was a lie before they came and it's still a lie. You're never perfectly safe. No human being on Earth ever is or ever was. To live is to risk your life, your heart, everything.

I've heard this sound before. I know this voice. This love.

Grief does not expire like a candle or the beacon on a lighthouse.