I’ve never been nearly as alone as I always say I am.

Switzerland is undeniably a modern country, but gender roles make occasional appearances. In some cantons women didn’t get the right to vote until the 1970s. Anna knew she’d been in Switzerland too long when this stopped appalling her.

The face one wears as an adult is a mask that’s cut to fit in her youth.

A man can smell a woman’s sadness.

It’s a travesty when a woman wastes herself.

There’s always a correspondence between one’s dreams and one’s wounds.

Is it possible to fall in love over a single look? Anna couldn’t say. But at the behest of a glance tossed casually down upon her, she was made witness, victim, and slave to the culmination of all her mythologies.

Grief that finds no relief in tears makes other organs weep.

Shame lies. Shame a woman and she will believe she is fundamentally wrong, organically delinquent. The only confidence she will have will be in her failures. You will never convince her otherwise.

An obsession is a defense against feeling out of control. A compulsion is the failure of that defense.