And she was terribly aware that she was alive. Not just living and breathing, but ...alive.

He had always felt that he lived on the edges of life, Constantine realized, watching everyone else living, sometimes helping them do it.

Suddenly, and for the first time, he was at the center of his own life, living it and loving it.

I fancy the romantic image of myself being soothed and inspired by music and the sweet aroma and flickering lights of candles.

Why do I want to run from happiness?

After you married, Crispin, she said, my heart was broken. I will not deny it. But I did not slip into a sort of suspended life that would be forever gray and meaningless if you did not somehow come back to me. I put back the pieces of my heart and kept on living. I am not the woman I was when I was in love with you and expecting to marry you. I am not the woman I was when I heard that you were married. I am the woman I have become in the five years since then, and she is a totally different person. I like her. I wish to continue living her life.