“Hollowness: that I understand. I'm starting to believe that there isn't anything you can do to fix it. That's what I've taken from the therapy sessions: the holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mold yourself through the gaps”

“I was commissioned to write some romantic fiction, and I really liked doing those, and they were very instructive in terms of building characters and plots. But it never felt right for me.”

“I'm not romantic, and I don't like Christmas.”

“People think it's terribly sad to spend Christmas alone, but it's no sadder, really, than spending any other day alone, is it?”

“Every time I think I'm about to seize the moment, it drifts back into the shadows, just beyond my reach.”

“That's my fault, of course, because I behaved stupidly, like a child, because I didn't like feeling rejected. I need to learn to lose a little better.”

“We tell our stories differently, don't we, you and I?”

“She's cuckoo, laying her egg in my nest.”

“Who's to say that once I run, I'll find that isn't enough? Who's to say I won't end up feeling exactly the way I do right now-not safe, but stifled? Maybe I'll want to run again, and again, and eventually I'll end up back on those old tracks, because there's nowhere left to go. Maybe. Maybe not. You have to take the risk, don't you”

“If he does it with you, he'll do it to you.”

“As for him "feeling dead", that's probably just a consequence of him being gone from your life for so long. In some sense he no longer feels real to you.”