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

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.

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.

She was a large, disordered woman, like a child's drawing that didn't stay within the lines.

Just like ice, lives crack, too. Personalities. Identities.

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

She held herself very straight, like Audrey Hepburn, whom all women idolize and men never think about.