I wrote for twelve years and collected 250 rejection slips before getting any fiction published, so I guess outside reinforcement isn't all that important to me.

One didn't issue instructions to comets. Grown children did what they had to do, and parents could only grit their teeth and watch and pray for them to get through it.

successful parenting was like log rolling, and she'd often landed in the drink.

A snake will always be a snake, even if you put a chain around its neck and try to make it walk upright.

Depression was a very active state really. Even if you appeared to an observer to be immobilized, your mind was in a frenzy of paralysis. You were unable to function, but were actively despising yourself for it.

If this was adulthood the only improvement she could detect in her situation was that she could now eat dessert without eating her vegetables.

The French would eat anything that couldn't outrun them.