...Some people hurt so much they can't take what they need, even when someone wants to give it to them. (106)

For a psychiatrist to be any good, he has to be willing to corner you, close off the easy exits, even when it hurts. It's supposed to. (46)

Most children would rather preserve the fantasy of a loving connection with their fathers and mothers, at all costs, even if it costs them their self-esteem. When you're three or seven years old, it's less frightening to think of yourself as an unlovable, disappointing screwup than to recognize the fact that you're living with a monster.

...Some people hurt so much they can't take what they need, even when someone wants to give it to them. (106)

...the horrific fact that our lives and those of the people we love are impermanent and exquisitely fragile, that any of us can cease to exist without warning, that loving anyone, anywhere, at any time, leaves you infinitely vulnerable at every single moment. (20)

People react predictably, especially when they don't have time to think.

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