I did the searching and remembering, she did the disappearing and the forgetting.

Maybe you think you’ll be entitled to more happiness later by forgoing all of it now, but it doesn’t work that way. Happiness takes as much practice as unhappiness does. It’s by living that you live more. By waiting you wait more. Every waiting day makes your life a little less. Every lonely day makes you a little smaller. Every day you put off your life makes you less capable of living it.

You broke up with him," a combination Effie-Carmen voice in her head reminded her.

"But that didn't mean you were allowed to stop loving me," she felt like saying to him.

Parents were the only ones obligated to love you; from the rest of the world you had to earn it.

You know what the secret is? It's so simple. We love one another. We're nice to one another. Do you know how rare that is? - Carmen

Let me love you, but don't love me back. Do love me and let me hate you for a while. Let me feel like I have some control, because I know I never do.