There's a space at the bottom of an exhale, a little hitch between taking in and letting out that's a perfect zero you can go into. There's a rest point between the heart muscle's close and open - an instant of keenest living when you're momentarily dead. You can rest there.
Mary KarrThe failures of other genres to provide an emotional connection with some of their characters and narratives gives memoir a toehold.
Mary KarrChildhood was terrifying for me. A kid has no control. Youโre three feet tall, flat broke, unemployed, and illiterate. Terror snaps you awake. You pay keen attention. People can just pick you up and move you and put you down.
Mary KarrIt turned out to be impossible for me to 'run away' in the sense other American teenagers did. Any movement at all was taken for progress in my family.
Mary Karr