I can hear my brother's voice in my head. Your problem is that you're too emotional. But how can I not be emotional, Rowan? How can I not care?

Tell freedom I said hello.

No matter how lonely it makes me, and no matter how wide and horrific the loneliness, at least I remember who I am.

I wish I had a memory of that first violent shove, the shock of cold air, the sting of oxygen into new lungs. Everyone should remember being born. It doesn't seem fair that we only remember dying.

I don’t have too many books, I have too little shelving.

Humans are the absolute worst thing to happen to this planet.

I should not have loved my daughter as I did. Not in this world in which nothing lives for long. You children are flies. You are roses. You multiply and die.