Touch comes before sight, before speech. It is the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth. - Margaret Atwood

Charis herself gave up Christianity a long time ago. For one thing, the Bible is full of meat: animals being sacrificed, lambs, bullocks, doves. Cain was right to offer up the vegetables, God was wrong to refuse them. And there's too much blood: people in the Bible are always having their blood spilled, blood on their hands, their blood licked up by dogs. There are too many slaughters, too much suffering, too many tears.

She used to think some of the Eastern religions would be more serene; she was a Buddhist for a while, before she discovered how many hells they had. Most religions are so intent on punishment.

Why is it he feels some line has been crossed, some boundary transgressed? How much is too much, how far is too far?

Now I can see how that can happen. You can fall in love with anybody — a fool, a criminal, a nothing. There are no good rules.