I'm interested in the kind of religion that makes life harder. I'm not so interested in the comforting kind of religion.

I put my hand on the doorknob because I thought maybe her hand was on the doorknob on the other side.

Memories are small prayers to God, if we believed in that sort of thing.

I love the idea of books being more than books, or being, rather, something other than books.

Everything else happened - why not the things that could have?

Language is never fully trustworthy, but when it comes to eating animals, words are as often used to misdirect and camouflage as they are to communicate. Some words, like veal, help us forget what we are actually talking about. Some, like free-range, can mislead those whose consciences seek clarification. Some, like happy, mean the opposite of what they would seem. And some, like natural, mean next to nothing.

The paper, the stapler, the staples, the tape. It makes me sick. Physical things. Forty years of loving someone becomes staples and tape.