We write to taste life twice," Anais Nin wrote, "in the moment and in retrospection.

You've got to figure out which end of the needle you're gon' be, the one that's fastened to the thread or the end that pierces the cloth.

And when you get down to it, Lily, that is the only purpose grand enough for a human life. Not just to love but to persist in love.

Nobody should go through life without falling in love.

I felt someone should personally thank every rock out there for the human misery it had absorbed. We should kiss them one by one & say, we are sorry, but something strong & lasting had to do this for May, & you are the chosen ones. God bless your rock hearts.

The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters.

I don't remember what they said, only the fury of their words, how the air turned raw and full of welts. Later it would remind me of birds trapped inside a closed room, flinging themselves against the windows and the walls, against each other.