You surround yourself with your pain or you avoid it and let it find you when you are trying to do other things

The bottom had arrived. She crashed against it, but it brought no sense of closure or understanding. She just lay there at the bottom looking up. She knew there must be a very tiny circle of light up there somewhere, but just now she couldn’t see it.

A loving soul was always more beautiful over the long haul, but actual prettiness was fleeting.

I allowed myself to suffer how jarringly destructive the present feels and how fragile the past.

Marnie hated to see her spend so much of herself on someone who didn't care.

They needed to grieve alone was what Tibby's dad said. Lena wondered if really there was any choice in that. Everyone grieved alone.

Lena realized that a fundamental layer of their happiness depended on the four of them being close to one another. Their lives were independent and full. Their friendship was only one aspect of their lives, but it seemed to give meaning to all the others.