Most of our parents wanted the best for us, I knew, but we also wanted the best for them.

But what I wanted back had never really been there. He was a temporary illusion, a mirage of water after walking in the desert. I had made him up. And he could have killed me. You've got to stop the ride sometimes. Stop it and get off.

It's shocking the things we call love.

But an apology too — you think you’re giving something, but you’re not. You’re really asking for something. You’re asking for forgiveness, you’re asking for the other injured person to make it okay for you. Apologies were harder work for the person getting one than the person giving one.

The loneliness you feel with another person, the wrong person, is the loneliest of all.

Being needed was a handy trick. It could fill you up so full you never even noticed all the places that were empty.

Accents are funny in that they have this odd draw for us, yet we forget we have one, too. No one is without an accent, but the one you’ve got seems like oatmeal to their caviar.