You do not have to utter anything you do not want to utter,” I told her, and she said, “Then I would never utter another word again.” “You do not have to do anything that you do not want to do.” “Then I would never do anything again.

I regret that it takes a life to learn how to live.

I try not to remember the life that I didn’t want to lose but lost and have to remember

It seems entirely possible to me that horrible things can be going on without us becoming horrible people.

I can forgive you for leaving, but not for coming back.

Find a printer paper and imagine a full-grown bird shaped something like a football with legs standing on it. Imagine 33,000 of these rectangles in a grid. (Broilers are never in cages, and never on multiple levels.) Now enclose the grid with windowless walls and put a ceiling on top. Run in automated (drug-laced) feed, water, heating, and ventilation systems. This is a farm.

We talked about nothing in particular, but it felt like we were talking about the most important things.