There was only today to throw yourself into without thinking about tomorrow, let alone forever. To keep you from thinking, there was liquor, an ocean's worth at least, all the usual vices and plenty of rope to hang yourself with. Love is a beautiful liar.

And sometimes I think there isn’t anything to us but our mistakes.

Not everyone out in a storm wants to be saved

Happiness is so awfully complicated, but freedom isn't. You're either tied down or you're not.

My life was my life; I would have to stare it down, somehow, and make it work for me.

Maybe happiness was an hourglass already running out, the grains tipping, sifting past each other. Maybe it was a state of mind.

But when Bumby nursed, his fist clutching the fabric of my robe, his eyes soft and bottomless and locked on mine, as if I were the very heart of his universe, I couldn't help but melt into him.