I really feel like the gift is also the curse. It's always half-and-half. Whatever brings you the most joy will also probably bring you the most pain. Always a price to pay

Be careful what you wish for. I know that for a fact. Wishes are brutal, unforgiving things. They burn your tongue the moment they're spoken and you can never take them back.

Sometimes they would sit in the parlor together, both reading – in entirely separate worlds, to be sure, but joined somehow. When this happened, other people in the family couldn't bring themselves to disturb them. All that could be heard in the parlor was the sound of pages, turning.

You cannot dispute the ridiculous. You cannot argue reasonably with evil.

It's not finding what's lost, it's understanding what you've found.

Margaret thought of all she knew for certain, that day would always follow night that love was never wasted nor was it lost.

I read "The Group" by Mary McCarthy. It had tons of sex in it, or so I thought at the time.