I'm like everyone else in this stupid, bloody, amazing world. I'm flawed. Impossibly so. But hopeful. I'm still me.

I will never, ever drink whiskey again. From now on, it's strictly sherry.

People will believe anything if it means they can go on with their lives and not have to think too hard about it.

We're still expected to color within the lines of accepted femininity, and women who step out of those lines are usually attacked, whether verbally or physically.

Goodbye," I whisper at last, when it no longer matters and there is no one to hear it but the window.

Ain't that a sight? With all the things we know and learn, we still ain't touched the big mysteries -- where we come from, where we go next, why we even her. And when something truly miraculous happens, we run and hide in our caves. We deny.

Because you can't keep up the illusion forever," I say. "No one has that much magic.