“How can I explain this? Why is it you can never hope to describe the emotion Africa creates?You are lifted.Out of whatever pit, unbound from whatever tie, released from whatever fear. You are lifted and you see it all from above. Your pit, your ties, your fear. you are lifted, you slowly rise like a hot-air balloon, and all you see is the space and the endless possibilities for losing yourself in it.”

“Whenever she walked along the streets of Manhattan, she looked at all the different faces coming toward her and, despite their different features and colors, she regarded them all as Americans.”

“A first kiss is the demarcation line: the same information that a moment ago felt private, all of a suddens seems unfair to withhold. And with that exchange came more.”

“Perhaps she just needed to remind herself more often how that gold was still floating above her head, it's minuscule particles visible only when pierced by a certain light.”

“These were the moments that would stick in her memory for years to come, those instants of perfect bliss that nothing else would ever match again.”

“Jealousy is a disease, it's like a poison.”

“Love sometimes makes people ruthless in a way that not even hatred can.”

“It may be possible to forget our past but our past is not going to forget us.”

“I think part of me doesn't want to remember him, for fear of missing him too much.”

“I can't say why some memories float and other sink.”

“You'll understand me when you're older. Then you'll see how men can blind you. And I mean blind you. To the point that you're no longer yourself.”