Sometimes it didn't matter how much gumption you had. What mattered were the cards you'd been dealt.
Helen and Buster got down and started praying with Mom, but I just stood there looking at them. The way I saw it, I was the one who'd saved us all, not Mom and not some guardian angel.
Don’t be afraid of your dark places, Mom told her. If you can shine a light on them, you’ll find treasure there.
Even though I was getting better education at home than any of the kids in Toyah, I'd need to go to finishing school when I was thirteen, both to acquire social graces and to earn a diploma. Because i...
We both stood a better chance if we took on the world together.
Aficionados of the weather. We’d follow a storm
Why spend the afternoon making a meal that will be gone in an hour, she'd ask us, when in the same amount of time, I can do a painting that will last forever?
What doesn't kill you will make you stronger
To all families who, despite their scars, still find a way to love.
The world seemed divided into girls with boyfriends and girls without them. It was the distinction that mattered the most, practically the only one that did matter. But I knew that boys were dangerous...
Once you go on welfare it changes you. Even if you get off welfare, you never escape the stigma that you were a charity case. You're scarred for life.
No child is born a delinquent. They only became that way if nobody loved them when they were kids. Unloved children grow up to be serial murderers or alcoholics.
New Yorkers, I figured, just pretended to be unfriendly.
Lori wanted Mom to try on the glasses, too. Mom slipped them on and, blinking, looked around the room. She studied one of her own paintings quietly, then handed the glasses back to Lori. Did you see b...
Look at the way you live. You've sold out. Next thing I know you'll become a Republican. She shook her head. Where are the values I raised you with?
Life's too short to worry about what other people think... Anyway, they should accept us for who we are.
Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy, Mom told me. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.
It’s not being prejudiced, Mom said. It’s a matter of accuracy in labeling.
I was torturing the fire, giving it life, and snuffing it out. pg. 33
How many places have we lived? I asked Lori. That depends on what you mean by 'lived', she said. If you spend one in some town, did you live there? What about two nights? Or a whole week? I thought....