“She smiled thoughtfully. I think Jackson was like a lost puppy. He needed purpose, someone to believe in him and love him despite his bullshit. But he didnt have that, so he just went around humpin...”

“Forgiveness wasnt ever easy, but a feat much more manageable when you werent the subject of its grace. Maybe Id always be a broken recipient of grace. And in that musing, I found rest.”

“The moonlight rained down on the beach as if to shine a spotlight on my solitude, and I wanted to cry out at it, Why did you take her? You, surrounded by all of your twinkling stars and infinite wo...”

“You think when someone you love passes away, everything becomes clearer, that your priorities and perspectives align in a way theyve never aligned before because of the sobriety of it all. But it d...”

“This was our rhythm, our worship: give and take, gift and receive, honor and entrust. Making love to this man wasnt just an expression of my feelings for him or a carnal, physical needit was an off...”

“So help me, if something crawls out of one of these bags, I will castrate you.I bet youd love that.-Emma and Jackson”

“I finally know the difference between pleasing and loving, obeying and respecting. It has taken me so many years to be okay with being different, and with being this alive, this intense. (xxvi)”

“Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence.Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance.Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence.Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.”

“Birthdays could be such a bummer when you were older than the country you lived in.”

“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”

“I've always said that idleness dulls the spirit. We have to keep the brain busy, or at least the hands if we don't have a brain.”

“If your workplace was somehow transplanted into the jungle and everyone was forced to survive at a very primitive level, it's safe to say that eventually your boss would rape you.”

“I was aware of something stable in his nature. Ha game me a feeling of security, as if nothing I said or did would change his opinion of me. I never found his pleasantries irksome, partly, no doubt...”

“But when we sit together, close, said Bernard, we melt into each other with phrases. We are edged with mist. We make an unsubstantial territory.”

“You praise man who has the ability to perform great actions.I admire man who can deal with great pain and knows no despair.”