People don't save other people. People save themselves.

But what humans forget, cells remember. The body, that elephant

girls forbidden to dance would only attract husbands with bad complexions and sunken chests.

We're all well-acquainted with depression, we all know what the low moods are, but the mania was not something I knew much about. I didn't know that it would make someone dress extravagantly or start to pun, and to stay up and drink.

It was one of those humid days when the atmosphere gets confused. Sitting on the porch, you could feel it: the air wishing it was water.

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.

They were bound for college, husbands, child-rearing, unhappiness only dimly perceived- bound, in other words, for life.