He liked the mere act of reading, the magic of turning scratches on a page into words inside his head.

what i really want - and what i never get - is to be appreciated. do you know what it’s like to work so hard to make sure everyone’s happy, and to have not a single person recognize it

You realize that trying to keep your distance from me will not lessen my affection for you. All efforts to save me from you will fail.

Throughout the book, she refers to herself as "the side effect," which is just totally correct. Cancer kids are essentially side effects of the relentless mutation that made the diversity of life on earth possible.

Congratulations! You're a woman. Now die.

He told me this while ripping through his duffel bag, throwing clothes into drawers with reckless abandon. Chip did not believe in having a sock drawer or a T-shirt drawer. He believed that all drawers were created equal and filled each with whatever fit. My mother would have died.

I don't think your missing pieces ever fit inside you again once they go missing.