Yes, you need a passport to prove to the world that you exist. The people at passport control, they cannot look at you and see you are a person. No! They have to look at a little photograph of you. Then they believe you exist.

She could become a spinster, like Emily Dickinson, writing poems full of dashes and brilliance, and never gaining weight.

She may have looked normal on the outside, but once you'd seen her handwriting you knew she was deliciously complicated inside.

Sourmelina's secret (as Aunt Zo put it): 'Lina was one of those women they named the island after.

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

It was morning by the clock but deepest nighttime in his body.

There are some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things.