Girls have to be toughened so they can survive a world that presses harder on women.

I liked his voice, rich and unself-conscious even when he forgot words and hummed to fill in the gap. What I didn't understand, I imagined, and thus it became a love song.

...don't create snakes out of ropes. You have enough to worry about.

Monday is the day of silence, day of the whole white mung bean, which is sacred to the moon.

Expectations are like hidden rocks in your path , All they do is trip you up

Can't you ever be serious?' I said, mortified. 'It's difficult,' he said. 'There's so little in life that's worth it.

Sometimes -- she knows this from her own life -- to get to the other side, you must travel through grief. No detours are possible.