It was a catch-22: If you didn’t put the trauma behind you, you couldn’t move on. But if you did put the trauma behind you, you willingly gave up your claim to the person you were before it happened.

The thing that most people didn't understand, if they weren't in his line if work, was that a rape victim and a victim of a fatal accident were both gone forever. The difference was that the rape victim still had to go through the motions of being alive.

When I'm with you, bells go off in my head like a moving truck that's backing up.

I learned a long time ago with you that folks who were trying to be kind would rather do it with a macaroni-and-cheese bake than any personal involvement. You hand off a serving dish and you've done your job - no need to get personally involved, and your conscience is clean. Food is the currency of aid.

When your mother is made out of your dreams, anything real is bound to disappoint you.

Or in other words, it's the substance you've got when you start that determines the outcome.

You have everything. A family, a great job, a lot of people who look up to you. You've got a place to go home to. So go.