Capitalism has resulted in material well-being but spiritual bankruptcy.

It took courage to let things fall apart so beautifully.

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

I tell my students that when you write, you should pretend you’re writing the best letter you ever wrote to the smartest friend you have. That way, you’ll never dumb things down. You won’t have to explain things that don’t need explaining. You’ll assume an intimacy and a natural shorthand, which is good because readers are smart and don’t wish to be condescended to.

Household objects lost meaning. A bedside clock became a hunk of molded plastic, telling something called time, in a world marking it's passage for some reason.

and she had succeeded, on the second try, in hurling herself out of the world

The girls took into their own hands decisions better left to God. They became too powerful to live among us, too self-concerned, too visionary, too blind.