the territory of grief ... is both cruel and commonplace.

The only education in grief that any of us ever gets is a crash course.

Grief doesn't necessarily make you noble. Sometimes it just makes you crazy, or primitive with fear.

Old dogs can be a regal sight. Their exuberance settles over the years into a seasoned nobility, their routines become as locked into yours as the quietest and kindest of marriages.

The truth, or success, of any writer's story lies partly in its specificity and its emotional honesty.

Scratch a fantasy and you'll find a nightmare.

That she was irreplaceable became a bittersweet loyalty: Her death was what I had now instead of her.