When she listened to songs that she loved on the radio, something stirred inside her. A liquid ache spread under her skin, and she walked out of the world like a witch.

That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.

If you're happy in a dream, does that count?

This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt.

Flat muscled and honey coloured. Sea secrets in his eyes. A silver raindrop in his ear.

His gratitude widened his smile and bent his back.

He could do only one thing at a time. If he held her, he couldn't kiss her. If he kissed her, he couldn't see her. If he saw her, he couldn't feel her.

Heaven opened and the water hammered down, reviving the reluctant old well, greenmossing the pigless pigsty, carpet bombing still, tea-colored puddles the way memory bombs still, tea-colored minds.

Her collarbones like wings that spread from the base of her throat to the ends of her shoulders. A bird held down by skin.

To understand history, ' Chacko said, 'we have to go inside and listen to what they're saying. And look at the books and the pictures on the wall. And smell the smells.

How history negotiates its terms and collects its dues from those who break its laws.

Anyone can criticize. It is important to be a person who can appreciate and show the way to betterment.

Always resist the temptation to forget the painful parts of your past.

What is allowed us is disagreeable, what is denied us causes intense desire.

Just because you're breathing, doesn't mean you're alive.

Unfinished business always comes back to haunt you, and a man who swears he'll love you forever isn't finished with you until he's done.

One thing nobody can do better than you is be you.

A strong new presence in poetry . . . Kei Miller's is a voice we will hear much more of, for it speaks and sings with rare confidence and authority.

My truth is that what doesn't kill you makes you weaker rather than stronger, although it makes you wiser.

If there were never any clouds (sorrows and sufferings) in our lives, we would have no faith. God does not come near us without clouds.

Because we're trying, because we want, it's very hard to get.