What we end up calling history is a kind of knife, slicing down through time. A few people are hard enough to bend its edge. But most won't even stand close to the blade. I'm one of those. We don't bend anything.

If it's important, your heart remembers.

The wrong words are impossible when there are no words.

Will you explain to me why people encourage delusional behaviour in children, and medicate it in adults?

Most of the girls my age, or even younger, have babies. They appear way too young to be married, till you look in their eyes. Then you'll see it. Their eyes look happy and sad at the same time, but unexcited by anything, shifting easily off to the side as if they've already seen most of what there is. Married eyes.

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.

This is how Americans think. You believe that if something terrible happens to someone, they must have deserved it.