Like a starfish, the heart endures its amputation.

My idea of a productive day, as both a child and an adult, was reading for hours and staring out the window.

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

the mother's first job is to raise a daughter strong enough to outlast her.

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

The flaw is the thing we love.

The belief that life was hard and often its worst battles were fought in private, that it was possible to walk through fear and come out scorched but still breathing.