Living in a place like this, she must have learned how to see all the monsters that can hide a person.

It was my fifth grade teacher who introduced the idea that writing could be more than a hobby for me.

Life is much different from the days when there were lilies in my mother’s garden, and all my secrets fit into a paper cup.

There are so many of us, so many girls. The world wants us for our wombs or our bodies, or it doesn't want us at all.

She smiles at our husband as she moves, and he blushes, overcome by her beauty. But I know what her smile really means...Her smile is her revenge.

Vaughn is talking about the heat, and his voice is so excited that it breaks into whispers at times. He loves his madness the way a bird loves the sky.

There's nothing here to say good-bye to. There's no dancing girl. No mischievous smile. She's gone, off with her sisters, broken free, escaped. And if she were here now, she would say, "Go.