For some reason our lives were marked by summers. . . . Summer was the time when our lives joined completely, when we all had our birthdays, when really important things happened

Sometimes you need to make a mess. -Loretta, the Rollinses' hosekeeper

She loved her mother and depended on her mother, and yet every single word her mother said annoyed her.

A part of her wanted to tell him she still loved him, and that even though this love was hopeless and long over, it still consumed her year after year. It was a tangled hairball of feelings and she couldn't pull forth any one strand.

I'm afraid of time... I mean, I'm afraid of not having enough time. Not enough time to understand people, how they really are, or to be understood myself. I'm afraid of the quick judgements or mistakes everybody makes. You can't fix them without time. I'm afraid of seeing snapshots, not movies.

Someday was the thing he had, because it was a lot harder to ruin than today.

I love that blurry place where life’s transitions are made without you even knowing it.