It's always the mother's fault, ain't it?" she said softly, collecting her coat. "That boy turn out bad cause his mama a drunk, or she a junkie. She let him run wild, she don't teach him right from wrong. She never home when he back from school. Nobody ever say his daddy a drunk, or his daddy not home after school. And nobody ever say they some kids just damned mean.

it is always difficult to impress the ignorant.

I first foreswore motherhood when I was about eight years old. ... [Children] were annoying. We were loud and sneaky and broke things. As an eight-year-old, maybe I was simply mortified by the prospect of being saddled with myself.

Notoriety is cheap. It's just easier to get noticed by doing something bad.

In a country that doesn't discriminate between fame and infamy, the latter presents itself as plainly more achievable.

Lovers communicate not inside sentences, but between them. Passion lurks within interstice. It is grouting rather than bricks.

It's an apathy so absolute that it's like a hole you might fall in.