He’s speaking in the tone of voice that everyone uses when they’re about to break you apart. Gentle—kind, even—like they can make the news sound better just by speaking in a lullaby voice.

I’ve been trying so hard not to think his name, not to even breathe the idea of him

The most dangerous sicknesses are those that make us believe we are well

How is it possible, I think, to change so much and not be able to change anything at all?

I have had to give up so much, so many selves and lives already. I have grown up and out of the rubble of my old lives, of things and people I have cared for.

So many things become beautiful when you really look.

This was what being cured was like: like being in a fishbowl, circling always inside the same glass.