“ Nothing had just happened to her, she had made a choice, and then she had made another and another after that. Taken together, the small choices anyone made added up to a life. J. Courtney Sullivan
“ It wasn't right that you could only understand your parents' pain once you'd experienced the things they had, and by then they were gone. J. Courtney Sullivan
“ Each of Nora's children had arrived on this earth as him or herself, the more she knew them, the more she felt it to be true. They were so different from one another, and from her. J. Courtney Sullivan
“ In high school, during marathon phone conversations, cheap pizza dinners and long suburban car rides, I began to fall for boys because of who they actually were, or at least who I thought they might b… J. Courtney Sullivan
“ She had learned over time that to know anything was bearable. It was secrecy that could not be borne. J. Courtney Sullivan
“ With the Smithies, it was different. There was sometimes no telling where one of them began and the others left off. J. Courtney Sullivan
“ The moment a woman was born determined so much of who she was allowed to become. J. Courtney Sullivan
“ What would you have today if you woke up with only the things you thanked God for yesterday? He wondered J. Courtney Sullivan
“ Someone could save your life without you ever knowing it. It happened more than most people realized. J. Courtney Sullivan
“ Vielleicht war das Bild, das die eigene Familie von einem hatte, zu sehr mit ihren Hoffnungen und Ängsten vermischt, als dass sie einen jemals wirklich als die Person sehen konnten, die man war. J. Courtney Sullivan
“ People wanted you to validate their choices by doing the same thing they had done. J. Courtney Sullivan
“ One of life's contradictions: how human beings were at once entirely resilient and impossibly fragile. One decision could stay with you forever, and yet you could live through almost anything. J. Courtney Sullivan
“ Even if there was no God there was always the ocean- before you and after you, breathing in and out for all eternity. J. Courtney Sullivan
“ And then there were the things Sally knew her mother would have loved. Those, too, made it easy to imagine how she might come back to life, since nothing good seemed quite real without her there to ap… J. Courtney Sullivan
“ You want your kids to do better than you did, he said. That's what the American Dream is all about. But it's hard when they outgrow you. It hurts like hell. J. Courtney Sullivan
