Stuart needs "space" and "time," as if this were physics and not a human relationship.

The day your child says she hates you, and every child will go through the phase, it kicks like a foot in the stomach.

You is kind. You is smart. You is important.

With other people, Hilly hands out lies like the Presbyterians hand out guilt, but it's our own silent agreement, this strict honesty, perhaps the one thing that has kept us friends

It can be really powerful to write something when youre sad.

Having a separate bathroom for the black domestic was just the way things were done. It had faded out in new homes by the time the '70s and '80s rolled up.

And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.