Silver Bay

Perhaps we all harbour a perverse need to get close to things that might destroy us.

You think of all the ways you’re meant to greet your lover after a long separation – the slow-mo running together, the endless kisses, the desperate holding and touching. It’s like there’s an accepted protocol for big reunions, a kind of emotional outpouring, an affirmation of what you mean to each other. And all I felt when I saw Vanessa was this weird sensation I used to get when I was a kid, like when you’re at a friend’s house and your mum comes to get you before you’re ready.

She was three years younger than me, and suddenly, next to her, I felt as if I had the life experience and self-knowledge of an amoeba.

And I’ve never yet met a man who didn’t think he could turn the world on its axis if he wanted something badly enough.

I like strong women: I find it easier not to have to think for two.

‘I don’t even like the girl,’ I said.
‘Since when did sex have anything to do with liking someone?’

Silver Bay is a beautiful little town, but even a stretch of Paradise will become ugly if you’re never allowed to leave it.

It’s a terrible thing to watch the face of a child who knows she is asking the impossible.

Мне захотелось поцеловать его, но, с другой стороны, мне почти всегда хотелось его поцеловать.