But sometimes, unexpectedly, grief pounded over me in waves that left me gasping; and when the waves washed back, I found myself looking out over a brackish wreck which was illumined in a light so lucid, so heartsick and empty, that I could hardly remember that the world had ever been anything but dead.
Donna TarttSometimes you can do all the right things and not succeed. And that's a hard lesson of reality.
Donna TarttI think innocence is something that adults project upon children that's not really there.
Donna Tartt