I think that Oprah's on a mission to improve the lives of the average American in various ways. And one of them is to bring literature to people who would normally not be quite as demanding in their reading tastes, to show them writing that can be more than just entertainment.

We read so that we can be moved by a new way of looking at things.

Dawn tinted the darkness like water ink.

I felt beautiful but also interrupted. I wasn't used to being so complicated.

What can she possibly teach you, twenty seven names for tears?

The cake had a trick candle that wouldn't go out, so I didn't get my wish. Which was just that it would always be like this, that my life could be a party just for me.

And I realized as I walked through the neighborhood how each house could contain a completely different reality. In a single block, there could be fifty seperate worlds. Nobody ever really knew what was going on just next door.