This is the language of the world before—a world of chaos and confusion and happiness and despair—before the blitz turned streets to grids, cities to prisons, and hearts to dust.

My parents were pretty liberal, but they were still parents. I definitely had my teenage rebellion.

Someday she will be saved, and the past and all its pain will be rendered as smoothly palatable as the food we spoon to our babies.

I just want to be normal, like everybody else." "Are you sure that being like everybody else will make you happy?

The sparrows jumped before they knew how to fly, and they learned to fly only because they had jumped.

Do the other kids make fun of you? For how you talk?' 'Sometimes.' 'So why don't you do something about it? You could learn to talk differently, you know.' But this is my voice. How would you be able to tell when I was talking?

That’s what made it so frightening to the lawmakers: Love obeys no laws other than its own.