No other continent has endured such an unspeakably bizarre combination of foreign thievery and foreign goodwill.

It occurs to her that there is one thing about people you can never understand well enough: how entirely inside themselves they are.

Why does a person even get up in the morning? You have breakfast, you floss your teeth so you'll have healthy gums in your old age, and then you get in your car and drive down I-10 and die. Life is so stupid I can't stand it.

The substance of grief is not imaginary. It's as real as rope or the absence of air, and like both those things, it can kill.

Cooking is 80 percent confidence, a skill best acquired starting from when the apron strings wrap around you twice.

The most assiduous task of parenting is to divine the difference between boundaries and bondage.

But I've swallowed my pride before, that's for sure. I'm practically lined with my mistakes on the inside like a bad-wallpapered bathroom.