You've learned that every good lie is threaded with truth and every accepted truth leaks lies.

I can't remember coming across a more precise evocation of innocence lost since Golding's The Lord of the Flies. With The Death of Sweet Mister, Daniel Woodrell has written his masterpiece-spare, dark, and incandescently beautiful. It broke my heart.

It's hard to close the door on optimistic expectations when you love someone.

She smiled darkly and shook her head. 'I'm not crazy. I'm not. Of course what else would a crazy person claim? That's the Kafkaesque genius of it all. If you're not crazy but people have told the world you are, then all your protests to the contrary just underscore their point. Do you see what I'm saying?

This world can only give me reminders of what I don't have, can never have, didn't have for long enough.

... scarred by wisdom she'd never asked for.

Happiness comes in moments, & then it's gone until the next time. Could be years. But sadness settles it.