You're safe because you're so trapped inside your culture. Anything you can conceive of is fine because you can conceive of it.

I'm a toxic waste byproduct of God's creation.

If there’s any trick to doing a job you hate . . . Mrs. Clark says it’s to find a job you hate even more.

With my eyes closed, I ask if she knows how this will all turn out. "Long-term or short-term?" she asks. Both. "Long-term," she says, "we're all going to die. Then our bodies will rot. No surprise there. Short-term, we're going to live happily ever after." Really? "Really," she says. "So don't sweat it.

Her mom and dad are both doctors and want her to follow her dream, not turn out the way they have, no matter how much it costs them.

Just let yourself be broken and humiliated. Just your whole life, keep telling people, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

The only person we'll hate more than each other is ourselves.