Quotes from Paullina Simons

Oh Alexander," she said, "what do you want from me..." "Everything!" he whispered fiercely.

Shura...are you...in love with me?" "Turn to me," Alexander said. She turned. "Tatia, I worship you. I'm crazy in love with you. I want you to marry me.

With my writing, because I live it, I have to be consumed by it, and that means you have to forget your other life, which is constantly pulling you from your work.

Courage, Alexander..... Courage, Tatiana

Everything comes at a price. Everthing in your life. The question you have to ask yourself is, what price are you willing to pay?

Dear God, Tatiana prayed in bed that night, turning to the wall and pulling the white sheet and the thin brown blanket over herself. If You are there somewhere, please teach me how to hide what I never knew how to show.

Live as if you have faith," she said, "and faith shall be given to you.

In Alexander's life there was one thread that could not be broken by death, by distance, by time, by war. Could not be broken. As long as I am in the world, she said with her breath and her body, as long as I am, you are permanent, soldier.

Tatiana...you and I had only one moment..." said Alexander. "A single moment in time, in your time and mine...one instant, when another life could have still been possible." He kissed her lips. "Do you know what I'm talking about?" When Tatiana looked up from her ice cream, she saw a soldier staring at her from across the street. "I know that moment," whispered Tatiana.

Some words were like that. Whole lives attached to them. Ghosts and lives and ecstasy and sorrow.

Alexander knew that before he had light instead of darkness, he had to deserve light instead of darkness.

Thank you," she whispered, "for keeping yourself alive, soldier." "You're welcome," he whispered back.

Tatiana realized she was too young to hide well what was in her heart but old enough to know that her heart was in her eyes.

Shura...are you...in love with me?" "Turn to me," Alexander said. She turned. "Tatia, I worship you. I'm crazy in love with you. I want you to marry me.

If there is God, I thought...Please some day let me make love to this girl while she wears that dress." "Oh..." "Tatiasha...isn't it nice to know there is a God?

I'm not hungry," Alexander whispered. "I'm famished. Watch out for me. Now, don't make a single sound," he said, moving on top of her. "Tania, God....I'll cover your mouth, just like this, and you hold on to me, just like this, and I'm going to-just like this-

All grimy and sweaty, Alexander drew her to him, his palms on her back, and bending to her and tilting his head, whispered into her mouth, "Tatiasha, I know you won't believe this, but if I'm looking at the sheets when I'm making love to you, we've got a bigger problem than what damn color they are.

and when Tatiana lifted her glistening eyes to him, Alexander was looking down at her with his I'll-get-on-the-bus-for-you-anytime face.

We thought the hard part was over—but we were wrong. Living is the hardest part. Figuring out how to live your life when you're all busted up inside and out—there is nothing harder.

I don't want this life to end," said Alexander. "The good, the bad, the everything, the very old, to ever end.

I was blinded by stupidity for a brief moment in our life, for a flicker in the eternity in which you and I live, and I stumbled.

The power you have over someone who loves you is greater than any other power you'll ever have.

I love you as much as it is possible for a man to love a woman.

But on that sunlit Sunday, Alexander knew nothing, thought nothing, imagined nothing. He forgot Dimitri and war and the Soviet Union and escape plans, and even America, and crossed the street for Tatiana Metanova.