… there was only one rule. Work hard and be nice, and everything would go just fine. That should be the rule for life, too, Emily thought. But, of course, that wasn’t how things went.
Sometimes it seemed like that was all it was, motherhood—grief and guilt and fear. You said good-bye a little every day—from the minute they left your body until they left your home.
Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can break your heart.
The Universe doesn't like secrets. It conspires to reveal the truth, to lead you to it.
The choices we made ... These were the right choices. They were positive and proactive. And it was, for a time, good for everyone, most especially our boy. But were these choices really? Or were they...
The girl with the pictures on her skin
The past is history. The future is a mystery. The present is a gift.
The rich and vivid imagining that served her so well on the page was torture in her real life sometimes, if she let her thoughts sweep her away.
The watercolor sky—silver fading to blue fading to black, the high slice of moon and glimmering stars—reminded her that she’d always wanted to paint but didn’t know how, was in some ways afraid of the...
The woman I was seems hopelessly naive. I envy her.
The years grew over that embrace like a vine.
You can put on a mask and a costume for the rest of the world, but you can't hide from the people who changed your diapers.
What we think of as our gut instincts are really a very complex mosaic of past experiences, deep-seated hopes, fears, desires.
There is no external refuge. Meaning, you cannot look into the outer world to feel safe, to feel at peace. You cannot look without for understanding, or for justice. You must look within. I
There was a story Chuck’s father used to tell about the boy who spread a rumor against a good doctor in the town where he lived. When the boy went to make amends, the doctor asked him to cut open a fe...
There was and always had been a drive within me to know the truth of things.
Totally different outcomes; we’ve made totally different choices in our lives. Like I said, how you were raised is part of the big picture. It’s one important factor in a million. But in the end, it’s...
There were 9,780 living souls populating The Hollows. There were good people and bad ones, people with secrets and dark appetites, happy people, and people buckling under the weight of grief and sorro...
They don’t find peace. It’s pure bullshit. When something unspeakable happens, or when you do something unspeakable, it changes you. It takes you apart and reassembles you. You are a Frankenstein of c...
Counseling. She said that grief is not linear. It’s not a slow progression forward toward healing, it’s a zigzag, a terrible back-and-forth from devastated to okay until finally there are more okay pa...
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