My religion is complicated. Literature is my true religion. After all, I come from a completely non-religious family.

We're not stupid! We're just poor! And we have a right to insist on this distinction

How much can we ever know about the love and pain in another heart? How much can we hope to understand those who have suffered deeper anguish, greater deprivation, and more crushing disappointments than we ourselves have known?

And before long , the msuic , the views rushing past the window , my fathers voice and the narrow cobblestone streets all merged into one , and it seemed to me that while we would never find answers to these fundamental questions , it was good for us to ask them anyway . pg. 284

When something explosive is kept hidden away, a tension builds within that must ultimately be released.

Let everyone know, I lived a very happy life.

The gap between compassion and surrender is love’s darkest, deepest region.