I watched my brother and my father. The truth was very different from what we learned in school. The truth was the line between the living and the dead could be, it seemed, murky and blurred.

Heaven is comfort, but it's still not living.

If I had but an hour of love,if that be all that is given me,an hour of love upon this earth,I would give my love to thee.

As if in the other side of his kiss there could ve a new life

Murderers are not monsters, they're men. And that's the most frightening thing about them.

Tess was my first experience of a woman who had inhabited her weirdness, moved into the areas of herself that made her distinct from those around her, and learned how to display them proudly.

As she brought prospective buyers through, the realtor said it was an oil stain, but it was me, seeping out of the bag.