newborns reminded her of tiny buddhas

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

Here I am, wasting away inside a book I wish I could escape, and all she wants to do is stay in the story. If I could talk to this girl Delilah, I’d ask her why on earth she would ever trade a single second of the world she’s in for the one in which I’m stuck

Like the teens I worked with, I understood the need for miracles--they kept reality from paralyzing you

In reality, you don’t ever change the hurricane. You just learn how to stay out of its path.

If you ask me, music is the language of memory

It was like trying to bail out an ocean of water with a teaspoon.