“The world is dyed with the color of blood. It will never be able to go back to the way it was before.”

“He put one hand lightly on the back of her neck and simultaneously she placed one hand lightly on his hip, and they kissed in the street as all around them people hurried home in the summer light, and it was the sweetest kiss that either of them would ever know. This is where it all begins. Everything starts here, today. And then it was over.”

“So please, just let me be egocentric and ask you to stay.”

“I deciced if I were ever to get into booze and women, my line would be, ‘Excuse me, madam, but I would really love to bed and muss you. . . . Are you perchance free this evening?”

“I’ve loved him for a decade. And I had him for one day before I made a complete and utter mess of things. Or he did. I’m still not sure about that.”

“I’ll never love you anymore than I do, right this second. And I’ll never love you any less than Ido, right this second.”

“Now she had to pretend not to love the man she was pretending to love while pretending she wasn’t sleeping with him.”

“—Vamos, B. Te llevo a casa.—¿Y los demás? ¿Lucía se ha ido sin mí?—¿Tienes miedo de volver a montar conmigo? —se burló él, y me dio la sensación de que había escogido las palabras de forma deliberada—. En moto, quiero decir.«No muerdas el anzuelo», me dije, consciente de que me estaba desafiando.—Creo que cogeré un taxi.Enarcó las cejas, divertido por mi indecisión, y se cruzó de brazos a la vez que esbozaba una sonrisa de suficiencia.—Prometo no ir demasiado deprisa para ti —aseguró, y de nuevo no supe dilucidar si solo hablaba de la velocidad suicida a la que conducía o estaba adquiriendo otro tipo de compromiso.”

“All my life I have lived within the very hours of the hands of love.”

“How do you know?”“Well, I don’t, I’m making this up, but I bet I’m right.”

“All the friends in the world are in the fountain of a pen.”

“Love me less,but love me for a long time.”

“I don’t care much for diamonds,’ Nicola had told him.’Have you ever been offered any?’ he had asked, and he had been making fun of her, his face mocking.’Not that I can remember,’ Nicola had admitted calmly.’And how would an offer be received?’ he had asked, as though he knew the answer.’With a kick in the teeth,’ Nicola had said, meeting his eye.”

“L’avrebbe trovata?Senza il minimo dubbio.L’avrebbe salvata?Sempre.”

“When I am lonely for boys what I miss is their bodies. The smell of their skin, its saltiness. The rough whisper of stubble against my cheek. The strong firm hands, the way they rest on the curve of my back.”