No, honestly, my mouth shouldn't be able to function unless my brain's engaged.

The only difference between a wish and a prayer is that you're at the mercy of the universe for the first, and you've got some help with the second.

The first time she kissed me, I truly thought I'd had an aneurysm - my pulse was thundering so loud and my senses were exploding. This, I remember thinking, the only word I could hold on to in a sea of feelings.

When feeling came back, in a storm of color and force and sensation, the most you could do was hold on to the person beside you and hope you could weather it. Alex closed her eyes and expected the worst-but it wasn't a bad thing; it was just a different thing. A messier one, more complicated one. She hesitated, and then she kissed Patrick back, willing to concede that you might have to lose control before you could find what you'd been missing.

I'm grateful for my children, who are slowly emerging to become their own wonderful, interesting, compassionate young adults - which makes me believe that along the way I must have done something right.

Sometimes we don't know we're dreaming; we can't even fathom that we're asleep.

The only person who suffers, when you squirrel alway all that hate, is you.