“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...”

“Imagine being beaten up every day for something you didnt do and yet, when its over, you keep on smiling. Thats what every day of Donalds life was like. His death was a small death. No one mourned ...”

“You are mine for a moment, but you are His, forever His.”

“I am here because I worked too hard and too long not to be here. But although I told the university that I would walk across the stage to take my diploma, I wont. At age fifty-seven, Im too damned ...”

“In foster care its easier to measure what youve lost over what you have gained, because it there arent many gains in that life and you are a prisoner to someone elses plans for your life.”

“[W]hen it's slow, they send you home, and when it's busy, they expect you to stay late. They also expect you to be able to come in to cover someone's shift if a co-worker gets sick at the last minu...”

“Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to p...”

“A man may beg, but a woman has to sell.”