A poet falls in love with an art student who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle -- and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.

Candy: Once upon a time, there was a Candy and Dan... Things were very hot that year... All the wax was melting on the trees... He would climb balconies, climb everywhere. Do anything for her... Oh Danny boy. Thousands of birds. The tiniest birds adorned her hair... Everything was golden... One night the bed caught fire... He was handsome, and a very good criminal... We lived on sunlight and chocolate bars... It was the afternoon of extravagant delight... Danny, the Daredevil... Candy went missing... The day's last rays of sunshine cruise like sharks..."I wanna try it your way this time!" You came into my life really fast, and I liked it. We squelched in the mud of our joy. I was wet thighed with the surrender... Then there was a gap in things... And the whole earth tilted... This is the business. This is what we're after. With you inside me... Comes the hatch of death...
Casper: When you can stop, you don't want to. When you want to stop, you can't.
Dan: There's no going back. If you're given a reprieve, I think it's good to remember just how thin it is.
Dan: We had a lot going for us. We'd found the secret glue that held all things together. In a perfect place, where the noise did not intrude, our world was so very complete.
Dan: [reading of 'I Carry Your Heart With Me' by E. E. Cummings] Here is the deepest secret nobody knows. Here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide. And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart... I carry your heart, I carry it in my heart.
Dan: I wasn't trying to wreck Candy's life. I was trying to make mine better.
Dan: [HELL] Everything we ever did we did with the best of intentions, but events tumbled and the years pile up, the world is very bewildering to a junkie... and still you cling to the concept of change.
Dan: They say for every ten years you've been a junkie, you'll have spent seven of them waiting. On the one hand it was nice having all that time to think. On the other, anxiety was a full time job.
Dan: The future was a thing that gleamed, the present was so very very good...
Dan: The world is very bewildering to a junkie.
Elaine Wyatt: What happened to that beautiful little girl?
Candy: What happened? What happened? Can't you see? Don't you understand? I have been clenching my fucking fists since I was six years old!
Dan: What if that was it?
Candy: That was what?
Dan: The last shot.
Candy: I wouldn't care...
Dan: Casper was like the dad you always wanted - the one who lets you have lollies and fizzy drink, who lets you stay up and watch the late night movies.
Dan: When I first met Candy, those were like the days of "juice" when everything was bountiful.
Dan: Oh right, like I held a gun to your head, did I? Held you down and hit you up did I?
Candy: Fuck you
Dan: Fuck you too Candy.
Candy: Fuck you ten times.
Casper: This is Jorge. Very limited English, but very large penis! Isn't that right Jorge?
Jorge: [shrugs] ... okay.
Candy: I wanna try it your way this time.
Casper: [to Dan] Promise me you'll stop. Promise me you'll stop before I do.
Candy: [when Dan asks if she had sex with another man] Firstly, you don't know what you're talking about. Secondly, I hate the sound of your voice. Thirdly, why don't you just fuck off?
Schumann: Dan's a follower, Candy - not a leader.
Candy: That was beautiful. Let's have some more.
Candy: Do you know what I do here, Dan? I have sex with men that I hate.