"What if I like watching television? What if I don't want to do much else other than read a book?"... "What if I'm tired when I get home? What if I don't fill my days with frenetic activity?" "But one day you might wish you had."

I chose to believe that God, a benign God, would understand our sufferings and forgive us our trespasses.

... if you're going to wear a dress like that you need to wear it with confidence. You need to fill it out mentally as well as physically.

And it was suddenly very simple: There was no choice.

I held him close and said nothing, all the while telling him silently that he was loved. Oh, but he was loved.

Do you know how hard it is to say nothing? When every atom of you strains to do the opposite? I had practiced not saying anything the whole way from the airport, and it was still nearly killing me.

"You cut yourself off from all sorts of experiences because you tell yourself you are 'not that sort of person'" "But, I’m not." "How do you know? You’ve done nothing, been nowhere. How do you have the faintest idea what kind of person you are?"