The bad things don't seem to happen to bad people.' That's because they already did. There's no original evil left in the world.

But that's the hardest part of healing.' What?' Realizing there's no one to hate.

We are, all of us, crippled and twisted. Most of us strive desperately to keep our grotesqueries out of sight and mind. Our suffering is transformed by an alchemy of the soul into addiction, ulcers, strokes, hatred, even war.

But insight doesn't necessarily produce self-control. Sometimes you just see your destructiveness more clearly.

I figured anybody who talked about church as much as she did was using it a little like cocaine anyhow.

The truth will set you free. Unless you're guilty.

Plenty of people who survive tragedies end up ambivalent about danger--frightened by it, yet strangely drawn to it.