Viola blows out a thoughtful air. "My dad used to say, 'There's only forward, Vi, only outward and up.'" "There's only forward," I repeat. "Outward and up," she says.

Except I didn't say eff

Midnight passes and I'm twenty-five days and a million years from becoming a man.

Know yourself and go in swinging, if it hurts when you hit, it might be real, too.

For me it is really important to have a story with blood in the veins, there are bad tempers and good tempers.

Stories are the wildest things of all. Stories chase and bite and hunt.

...the lesson of forever and ever is that knowing a man's mind ain't knowing the man.