The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away.

Sleeping alone seemed unnatural to me, and pitiful, something done in hospitals or when you're contagious.

For if there is any single thing that everyone hopes for most dearly, it must be this: that the youngest outlive the oldest.

I thought: this is how life is, ridiculous beyond comprehension.

Sometimes I prayed for Baby Jesus to make me good, but Baby Jesus didn't.

Pure and unblemished souls must taste very bland, with an aftertaste of bitterness.

Hallie and I... were all there was. The image in the mirror that proves you are still here. We had exactly one sister apiece. We grew up knowing the simple arithmetic of scarcity: A sister is more precious than an eye.