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

God is not attracted to mountaintops or church steeples. God is drawn to suffering, and the dark places it surfaces, which is why sharing pain freely feels very much like love, and may be the same thing. (207)

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.

The irrational thoughts were the ones with the power to burn holes in your gut.

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

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.

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