That was when Leonard realized something crucial about depression. The smarter you were, the worse it was. The sharper your brain, the more it cut you up.

I was beginning to understand something about normality. Normality wasn't normal. It couldn't be. If normality were normal, everybody could leave it alone. They could sit back and let normality manifest itself. But people-and especially doctors- had doubts about normality. They weren't sure normality was up the job. And so they felt inclined to give it a boost.

All sixteen mentioned her jutting ribs, the insubstantiality of her thighs, and one, who went up to the roof with Lux during a warm winter rain, told us how the basins of her collarbones collected water.

Everyone struggles against despair, but it always wins in the end. It has to. It's the thing that lets us say goodbye.

Regret, already sogging me down, burst its dam. It seeped into my legs, it pooled in my heart.

our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them.

That's the way I will write characters, put a fair amount of myself in them, and then everyone else who was like that person, I will pick and choose.