Of course it is upon the rubble of ancient history that the present stands. L
I carried on drinking excessively as long as I could—right up to the moment I decided to become a mother. It was not so difficult, then, to stop. The stakes changed, and you grew inside me, and the mu...
He somehow knew it was more important to be reassuring, to seem to be in command of the situation, than to be right. And he was always willing to give in when he was found out to be wrong. The
Confessions. For whose benefit besides one’s own?
A moment’s friction for a life in which I would never again be free of my own body.
The photo is there in the hatbox, evidence that all the people I love best in the world were once in the same house, at the same time, healthy and whole, celebrating the season together.
The mania had given her a reckless invincibility, as drinking used to give me, a reckless certainty that she could, and should, get what she wanted at any cost. And
TO LAY. To lie. A lay. A lie. It’s a versatile but tricky word, isn’t it? To get the lay of the land. To lay down the law. To lay blame. To lie low. To lie down on the job. To let it lie. To lie down...
Somebody said—some poet, I can’t remember which one—that unrequited love is the best kind. But I can tell you with certainty, Robbie, that the other kind of love, the kind I received from your father...
Perhaps blame is the way the universe organizes itself around tragedy and loss. Without blame, suffering is random, and that kind of randomness leads to madness
If, when I looked, I was not perfect, how could I be beautiful? And if I was not beautiful, how could I be loved?
I suppose unrequited love is the hardest kind to shed because it is not really love at all. It is a half-love, and we are forever stomping around trying to get hold of the other half. W
I hoped until it hurt. I hoped so hard I felt it finally turn to prayer.
I felt not jealousy so much as shame for not understanding the bond between them. The bond that was stalwart in the face of complacency and cruelty and wandering desire. The habit of each other that w...
I did not feel lonely, but I felt the memory of loneliness.
Children will end up a world away, whether you want them to or not—unaware of the havoc being wreaked upon their histories back home.
At nine, she had begun to see a truer picture of me than Polly could. She had begun to see what I saw—not beauty, but imperfections. I let her pull away from me.
Walking into oblivion to claim love.
Unrequited love is the best kind. But I can tell you with certainty, Robbie, that the other kind of love, the kind I received from your father for more than two decades, is far more necessary.
Being born with only one kidney, occurring in roughly one in two thousand people.