Absolutely, love matters,” she reiterated. “We forget that at our own risk.

— Paul Russell

All desire, Tracy had had occasion since to think, is to some degree monstrous.

— Paul Russell

And Chris remembers: what they used to talk about was desire. Impossible, longing dreams. Delirious, aching confusion. That was the vital element they lived off … because it was the one thing that mattered. Not things, or achievements, or politics, or fracking or anything else: just sweet naked blameless unending desire.

— Paul Russell

And now none of it could be undone. That was the exquisite irony: the act that had undone everything could not itself be undone.

— Paul Russell

As long as we do violence to other animals, we’ll keep on doing violence to ourselves.

— Paul Russell

But men are such strange creatures, really. I think most of them would rather we weren’t around at all, so they could just spend time mooning over each other. Hero worship and all that stuff.

— Paul Russell

Chris is a little ashamed of having once fallen for him: it makes him sad how everything changes, how ruthless the heart can be.

— Paul Russell

Class, she reminded herself, was the real marker in America.

— Paul Russell

Despite his care, Reid was still playing with fire, the kind that could without warning sheathe one’s whole life in irreversible conflagration.

— Paul Russell

Did one learn or was one shaped?

— Paul Russell