Mid-grade readers don't have short attention spans, they just have low boredom tolerance.

We grow because the clamorous, permanent presence of our children forces us to put their needs before ours. We grow because our love for our children urges us to change as nothing else in our lives has the power to do. We grow (if we're willing to grow, that is: not every parent is willing) because being a parent helps us stop being a child.

the lives we lead are determined, for better and worse, by our loss experiences.

Suffering makes you deep. Travel makes you broad. In case I get my pick, I'd rather travel.

I could be such a wonderful wife to another wife's husband.

Somewhere slightly before or after the close of our second decade, we reach a momentous milestone--childhood's end. We have left asafe place and can't go home again. We have moved into a world where life isn't fair, where life is rarely what it should be.

You end up as you deserve. In old age you must put up with the face, the friends, the health, and the children you have earned.