Do you remember the summer we signed you up for camp? And the night before you left, you said you've changed your mind and wanted to stay home? I told you to to get a seat on the left side of the bus, so when you pulled away, you'd be able to look back and see me there waiting for you." I press her hand against my cheek, hard enough to leave a mark. "You get that same seat in Heaven. One where you can watch me, watching you.

Sometimes, all it takes to become human again is someone who can see you that way, no matter how you present on the surface.

You can’t undo something that’s happened; you can’t take back a word that’s already been said out loud.

They don't like the thought of someone else making demands on the person whom they see as belonging entirely to them.

Memories are like a still life painted by ten different student artists: some will be blue-based; others red; some will be as stark as Picasso and others as rich as Rembrandt; some will be foreshortened and others distant. Recollections are in the eye of the beholder; no two held up side by side will ever quite match.

When a freedom is taken away from you, I suppose, you recognize it as a privilege, not a right.

When you want something bad, you'll tell yourself a thousand lies.