Observing and understanding are two different things.

it is amazin, she thinks, how simple appearances can be created - a rush, a smile, a new coat of paint, a slow, calm voice, a hug, a new dress - a resolve to keep out questions and cling to secrets

When your life has had few events to occupy it, it's amazing how a simple encounter can seem like an entire three-act play.

Percentages! Those are for economists, polls, and politicians. Percentages can't define your identity.

Pieces. Isn't that what all of life is anyway? Shards. Bits. Moments. Am I less because I have fewer, or do the few I have mean more?

Father says it will come in time. “Time heals,” he says. I don’t tell him that I don’t know what time is.

It can take years to mold a dream. It takes only a fraction of a second for it to be shattered.