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
Don’t be afraid of your dark places, Mom told her. If you can shine a light on them, you’ll find treasure there.
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?
There was no better way to read a man’s character than to watch him play poker. Some played with the aim of holding on to what they had, others played to make a killing. For some it was gambling pure...
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.
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?
I found the gas, he said. Now all's I need to do is find the brake.
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....
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.
But the positive thoughts would give way to negative thoughts, and the negative thoughts seemed to swoop into her mind the way a big flock of black crows takes over the landscape, sitting thick in the...
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...
The women I know with strong personalities, the ones who might have become generals or the heads of companies if they were men, become teachers. Teaching is a calling, too. And I've always thought tha...
Maybe I should have cut him some slack. With his broken wing and lifetime of eating roadkill, he probably had a lot to be ungrateful about. Too much hard luck can create a permanent meanness of spirit...
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...
If you want to be treated like a mother, I said, you should act like one.
I told Mom that maybe I had made a terrible mistake, but mom said sometimes you have to get sicker before you can get better.
I think you’d make a wonderful teacher. You have a strong personality. The women I know with strong personalities, the ones who might have become generals or the heads of companies if they were men, b...
I never met a kid I couldn't teach. Every kid was good at something, and the trick was to find out what it was, then use it to teach him everything else. It was good work, the kind of work that let yo...