Can you see me? All of me? Probably not. No one ever really has.

I was unemployable when I got out of college.

In the end, it wasn't death that surprised her but the stubbornness of life.

You used to be able to tell a person's nationality by the face. Immigration ended that. Next you discerned nationality via the footwear. Globalization ended that.

The time has to be right and the heart willing.

On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide- it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese- the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope.

Some cities have fallen into ruin and some are built upon ruins but others contain their own ruins while still growing.