Given my own circumstances, I find that anything can turn out to belong nearly anywhere.

Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say.

It's terrible to lose somebody, but it's also true that some people never have anybody to lose, and I think that's got to be so much worse.

For Lou Ann, life itself was a life-threatening enterprise.

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.

This will be Great Mam's last spring. Her last June apples. Her last fresh roasting ears from the garden.

Silence has many advantages…I write and draw in my notebook and I read anything I please.