I wonder if it's possible to start a new relationship without hurting someone else.

I want to kiss her without counting the seconds. I want to hold her so long that I get to know her skin. I want, I want, I want.

It's only in the finer points that it gets complicated and contentious, the inability to realize that no matter what our religion or gender or race or geographic background, we all have about 98 percent in common with each other.... For whatever reason, we like to focus on the 2 percent that's different, and most of the conflict in the world comes from that.

tiny: but there is the word, this word phil wrayson taught me once: weltschmerz. it's the depression you feel when the world as it is does not line up with the world as you think it should be. i live in a big goddamned weltzschermz ocean, you know? and so do you.

I am so used to hints and mixed messages, saying things that might mean what they sort of sound like they mean. Games and contests, roles and rituals, talking in twelve languages at once so the true words won't be so obvious. I am not used to a plainspoken, honest truth.

Pride is allowed to have an element of worry, especially when you are a mother.

Everyone tried with me. And everytime, it felt like the whole point of life was to see if trying was ever enough.