I felt the crumpled paper that had taken the place of my lungs expand as if released from a fist.

…kissing George was a little like rolling in caramel after spending years surviving off rice sticks.

and I get refill number three or four and the wine is making my bones loose and it's giving my hair a red sheen and my breasts are blooming and my eyes feel sultry and wise and the dress is water.

I don't think so, I don't agree. The most unbearable thing I think by far, she said, is hope.

There's a gift in your lap and it's beautifully wrapped and it's not your birthday. You feel wonderful, you feel like somebody knows you're alive, you feel fear because it could be a bomb, because you think you're that important.

I peeled the skin off a grape in slippery little triangles, and I understood then that I would be undressing every item of food I could because my clothes would be staying on.

It is so often surprising, who rescues you at your lowest moments.