I burn, I freeze; I am never warm. I am rigid; I forgot softness because it did not serve me.

I will not let her speak because I love her, and when you love someone, you do not make them tell war stories. A war story is a black space. On the one side is before and on the other side is after, and what is inside belongs only to the dead.

You can never know how your clock runs. But it does run - and always faster than you think.

In both marriage and war you must cut up the things people say like a cake and eat only what you can stomach.

The future is a messy, motley business, little girl.

As all mothers know, children travel faster than kisses. The speed of kisses is, in fact, what Doctor Fallow would call a cosmic constant. The speed of children has no limits.

I know you loved both he and I, the way a mother can love two sons. And no one should be judged for loving more than they ought, only for loving not enough.