Andrius, I'm...scared." He stopped and turned to me. "No. Don't be scared. Don't give them anything Lina, not even your fear.

Good men are often more practical than pretty " said Mother. "Andrius just happens to be both.

I shut the bathroom door and caught sight of my face in the mirror. I had no idea how quickly it was to change, to fade. If I had, I would have stared at my reflection, memorizing it. It was the last time I would look into a real mirror for more than a decade.

Some things just won’t go away, no matter how hard you scrub.

We all laced together—a brothel madam, an English professor, a mute cook, a quadroon cabbie, and me, the girl carrying a bucket of lies and throwing them like confetti.

If I poured all the lies I had told into the Mississippi, the river would rise and flood the city.

Sometimes kindness can be delivered in a clumsy way.