"Wanting to explain everything to him - how certain notes of the moonlight sonata shredded her head like wind inside a paper bag; how her soul felt as endless and deep as the sea churning on their left; how the sight of the young Muslim couple filled her with an emotion that was equal parts joy and sadness; and above all, how she wanted a marriage that was different from the dead sea of marriages she saw all around her, how she wanted something finer, deeper, a marriage made out of silk and velvet instead of coarse cloth, a marriage made out of clouds and stardust and red earth and ocean foam and moonlight and sonatas and books and art galleries and passion and kindness and sorrow and ecstasy and of fingers touching from under a burqua"

"What she had meant to say was not 'I love you' at all. What she wanted to say was 'I love life', a self-declaration as naked and real and authentic as an X-ray."

[The Space Between Us - Thrity Umrigar]