“The problem with escaping is that we leave behind us, even among those we love, different versions of the truth and everything we couldnt bring ourselves to say.”

“In March of that year, I saw a man named Paul Barkley shot to death. It happened late at night in the parking lot of a caf in Santa Rosa called Galileos.”

“Arent autobiographies born in a question we ask ourselves: how did I get to this point? Dont we look back over the path and tell ourselves a story? This is how it happened. This is who I am.”

“Aren’t autobiographies born in a question we ask ourselves: how did I get to this point? Don’t we look back over the path and tell ourselves a story? This is how it happened. This is who I am.”

“Every American autobiography, someone once said, is about one thing—escape. Look into the frightened heart of an American life, and you’ll find a compulsion to flee—a seed planted in the national c...”

“Autobiography begins with a sense of being alone. It is an orphan form.”

“Mistakes? That's why they put erasers on pencils.”

“The features of character are carved out of adversity.”

“Seek a slower, simpler life.”

“There is no such thing as escape after all, only an exchange of one set of difficulties for another. It wasn't Mark or the farm or marriage I was trying to shake loose from but my own imperfect sel...”

“Talking won't change it. But sometimes it was what she wanted most, to tell someone; often, though, she just wanted to escape those horrid feelings, to escape herself, so there was no pain, no fear...”

“What spares us is memory, he said. Its what makes us worth saving. However low we sink, whatever promise we no longer fulfill, we tell our stories. Thats why youre so important, Charlie. Youre a gu...”

“Take a seat, Charlie, he said. Ill kill you in a few minutes. Itll be good for you.”

“What spares us is memory,” he said. “It’s what makes us worth saving. However low we sink, whatever promise we no longer fulfill, we tell our stories. That’s why you’re so important, Charlie. You’r...”