She had nothing in this world but her two hands and her crazy love for Jesus, who seemed, for his part, never to have heard of her.

How could I do it, how could a person go that low? And I understand your question, to which I reply, Are you kidding? That's nothing. I'd been much lower than that. And I expected to see myself do worse.

There was a part of her she hadn’t yet allowed to be born because it was too beautiful for this place

Death is the mother of beauty.

It was only when you left it alone that a tree might treat you as a friend. After the blade bit in, you had yourself a war.

I knew every raindrop by its name.

The first kiss plummeted him down a hole and popped him out into a world he thought he could get along in—as if he’d been pulling hard the wrong way and was now turned around headed downstream.