My mother moves so fast I do not even see it coming. But she slaps my face hard enough to make my head snap backward. She leaves a print that stains me long after it’s faded. Just so you know: shame is five-fingered.

But then again, maybe bad things happen because it’s the only way we can keep remembering what good is supposed to look like.

Writing is grunt work - you need to have self-motivation, perseverance, and faith... talent is the smallest part of it.

We have been naive enough to believe that we were invincible; that we could run blind through the hairpin turns of life at treacherous speeds and never crash.

There was a difference between people looking at you because they wanted to be like you, and people looking at you because your misfortune brought them one rung higher.

The ability to find sparks may be buried so deep in you that you stop believing there's a God. Until someone comes along, with so much light in her that you can't help but see your own, and when you're together,that light grows even brighter.

I think there are two different oceans - the one that plays with you in the summer, and the one that gets so mad in the winter.