You can spin stories out of the ways people understand and misunderstand each other.

It was common enough, to see so much death and want a child. Common, therefore human, and he wanted it all the more. When the wounded were screaming, you dreamed of sharing a little house somewhere, of an ordinary life, a family line, connection.

...beauty, she had discovered occupied a narrow band. Ugliness, on the hand, had infinite variation.

And feeling clever, I've always thought, is just a sigh away from being cheerful.

...falling in love could be achieved in a single word—a glance.

You can tell a lot from a person's nails. When a life starts to unravel, they're among the first to go.

For children, childhood is timeless. It is always the present. Everything is in the present tense. Of course, they have memories. Of course, time shifts a little for them and Christmas comes round in the end. But they don't feel it. Today is what they feel, and when they say 'When I grow up,' there is always an edge of disbelief - how could they ever be other than what they are?