What can we do?" Mom asked again. I shrugged. But she kept asking, as if there were something she could do, until I just kind of crawled across the couch into her lap and my dad came over and held my legs really tight and I wrapped my arms all the way around my mom's middle and they held on to me for hours while the tide rolled in.

Sunlight feels warm and rough against your skin like a kiss on the cheek from your dad.

Did I help you to a fate you didn't want?

One of the others shouted a translation: "The beautiful couple is beautiful.

Dutch is not so much a language as an ailment of the throat.

...It was nice to spend time with someone so interesting.

I think that most of us [writers] would rather have an audience than countless riches. If we wanted to be rich, we'd be doing smething else.