Part of growing up was learning not to be quite that honest - learning when it was better to lie, rather than to hurt someone with the truth.

Asking me to describe my son is like asking me to hold the ocean in a paper cup

You'd think someone who'd been to medical school would be able to hear through a stethoscope that somebody was empty inside.

If you had grown up with me, this is one of the things I would have tried to teach you: Marry a man who loves you more than you love him. Because I have both now, and when it is the other way around, there is no spell in the world that can even out the balance.

The night is falling down around us. Meteors rain like fireworks, quick rips in the seam of the dark... Every second, another streak of silver glows: parentheses, exclamation points, commas - a whole grammar made of light, for words too hard to speak.

be a good listener, don't judge and don't put boundaries on someone else's grief.

She understood how a world jammed with phones, email, and faxes could still leave you feeling utterly alone.