“I felt empty a lot and I sometimes had a senseand I know this sounds strangethat I really had no existence as my own person, that I could disappear and no one would notice or remember that I had ev...”

“Then there are all of those children, the ones who arent resilient. The ones who slowly, quietly die. I think the difference is that the kids who bounce back learn to bear a little bit more than th...”

“I dont know what I would have done if they had hugged me. I probably would have frozen in place, become stiff. It took most of my life to overcome my distaste for physical contact and not to stiffe...”

“I hit him for every single thing that was wrong in my life and kicked him in a fierce fury of madness as he sobbed and covered his face and screamed. I hit him because Walter hit me and I hit him b...”

“I had decided that I wanted to earn my living as a writer and the only place in Waterbury where they paid you for writing was at the local newspaper. My opportunity came when the paper had an openi...”

“For the first time in my life, I was eating well and from platesglass plates, no less, not out of the frying pan because somebody lost all the plates in the last move. Now when we ate, we sat at a ...”

“She brought a chair into the room and placed it alongside the top of his bed. Then she held his hand as he drifted off to sleep. It was so small in her own hand, and it felt warm and dry. She press...”

“Imagine being beaten up every day for something you didn’t do and yet, when it’s over, you keep on smiling. That’s what every day of Donald’s life was like. His death was a small death. No one mour...”

“July 24, 6:03 A.M.The laundry was warm and the rafters were firm, and Michael Holzapfel jumped from the chair as if it were a cliff...Michael Holzapfel knew what he was doing. He killed himself for...”

“A book is a suicide postponed.”

“How much can you really trust the promise of a suicidal father?”