“If I read inspirational words, they better have some pain to back them up. My strength for moving forward has never been sparked by flowery prose calling me and Angel. Tell me how you swallowed Hell, and lived to tell the tale… the ‘pain’ and your transformation – will inspire me to soar. And I promise you, I will listen.”

“No baby, you didn’t hurt me. You wrecked me. Know the difference.”

“He walked out the door and with each step my heart breaks.He’d be gone for days with long silences between each breath.I know I’m his one of many and he knows he’s my one of one. The only one who holds him down.Yet, he still leaves.He walks through the door and with each step my heart leaps.He crumbles to the ground in tears telling me he’s sorry.He says he needs me and he’s nothing without me.How can he be so attached and detached at the same time?I swear, this man loves to see me in pain.”

“He was the hunter of my soul,lying in wait – silently and motionless.Coaxing me out of hiding,Enticing me with love,Dangling hope in my face. Pulling me in, drawing me close.I gave in and walked into his trap.He did a good job too, tearing me apart and ripping my heart out. He was the hunter and I, the game.How could I forget that a hunter’s job is to kill?”

“My soul is crushed under the weight of tears I can’t spill.”

“Emotional pain was the price I paid on the path to becoming a woman. So excuse me if I’m not clueless like a little girl.”

“Sometimes we become strangers with those who knew our soul, we’re forced to reinvent ourselves and create a whole new world.”

“Life can be difficult and no one escapes its challenges. Sooner or later you will find yourself pressed to your limits. It may come in the form of a broken relationship, or unemployment, or a serious illness, or the death of a loved one. When it comes you will be tempted to define your life by that painful experience. Don’t succumb to that temptation.Refuse to define your life by any single event, whatever it may be. Its a real part of your life, but that is all–just a part.”

“Because this is love. This is what we’ve both been through heartbreak for.”

“My future has been completely and utterly paved by the shattered pieces of a heart that you broke.”

“Without pain, poetry is not possible.”

“Sin is like mold—the longer it lives, the blacker it becomes. And spores can’t be avoided. Never.”

“Pain is inevitable and often necessary. It kindles our minds, teaches us the signs of danger, and it let us understand the pain of others.”

“This isolation, this deep pit in the bottom of my stomach, didn’t have to hurt so much.” – Aquamarine Rosabelle bonus included in Dreams, Smiles, and Bloody Tears”

“Old age doth in sharp pains abound;We are belabored by the gout,Our blindness is a dark profound,Our deafness each one laughs about.Then reason’s light with falling rayDoth but a trembling flicker cast.Honor to age, ye children pay!Alas! my fifty years are past!”