“You and your siblings are the most precious part of my life. And of all my children, you have the most potential to go anywhere you wish in this world your test scores and grades have always been ...”

“Its not a bad thing, if youre responsible about it. Just dont start having boyfriends. Wait until youve found your husband. And how am I supposed to find a husband if I cant have a boyfriend until ...”

“And you can do far more for us from America than you can from here, where youre just another defenseless Christian. So if you really want to help, Inas, then youll go to the very best school you ca...”

“It will all work out, Inas. You come from a long line of survivors and strong women. So everything will be fine in the end. And we are always with you in spirit, to guide you and love you.”

“Im not sure. But unless Im struggling with the darkness within I like to sustain the illusion that death is actually much further from me than it really is.”

“Compartmentalization is an unconscious psychological defense mechanism employed to avoid cognitive dissonance.”

“Zachary smiles, and I wonder if he's felling different. Because standing out here waist deep in Gossimer Lake, next to my best friend, I'm feeling different-light and good and maybe even holy.”

“Don't make me sit through reality.”

“My wishing star glowed slightly and winked back at me. I could almost hear its voice, tinkling like wind chimes and church bells, reassuring me that everything would return to normal.”

“They might be talking in perfect latin tongue and without warning begin to talk in perfect anglo tongue and keep it up like that, alternating between a thing that believes itself to be perfect and ...”

“With all this snow, with the sun not there, with the cold and dreariness, this place doesn't look like my America, doesn't even look real. It's like we are in a terrible story, like we're in the cr...”

“Be my lover between two wars waged in the mirror, she said.I don't want to return now to the fortress of my father's house.Take me to your vineyard.Let me meet your mother.Perfume me with basil wat...”

“I love women whose hidden desires make horses put an end to their lives at the threshold”

“Events. Events in response to other events. Think about it. Nothing since the big bang has happened without a reason. And even the big bang might have come from something, because of something. One...”