I think humans have always been desperate. I think it has always been about doing something awful if it might help, when the only other option is death. Maybe that's what being a parent is supposed to feel like.

I wonder if she has figured out that I'll never love Linden, especially not in the way she does, and that he'll never love anyone the way he loves her. I wonder if she realizes, despite all her efforts to train me, that I can never take her place.

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'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.

I've done it all before, I tell myself, and I can do it again. Trust is the strongest weapon.

You've been captive for so long that you don't even realize you want freedom anymore.

There's a hazy smile on her lips that won't go away, and her hair is a mess. It's like a brushfire filled with casualties.