“Uncommon anxiety came to us in common hours when other people were doing mundane things like taking out the trash or checking their phones. But there was nothing to be done for this. We couldnt cha...”

“Sometimes, in the stillness of my room, my moms voice came to me, repeating things shed said for months. Like, My skin is melting off my face, isnt it? And, My whole body feels dead from the crap t...”

“It was an oddly satisfying idea to feel bereft as I left my mother this time. We only feel bereft when were deprived of something meaningful.”

“My mom was sitting at the kitchen table. Shed set her coffee down, making a noise that made me look her way. Id begun to notice her less and less often, like her colors were fading and blending in ...”

“With a damp palm, I turned the knob and cracked open the door. She was asleep in her freshly made bed. I cant explain how relieved I felt for this simple mercy. She was here and safe on clean sheets.”

“When Dad was in the middle of a description of the hotels laundry facility, I interrupted. Why havent you told me today, like you do every day, that Moms going to be better soon?He looked up then. ...”

“A book reads the better which is our own, and has been so long known to us, that we know the topography of its blots, and dog's ears, and can trace the dirt in it to having read it at tea with butt...”

“The luminescent flow of a sunbathed garden illuminating the shifting colors of its inhabitants echoed in my memory as I opened the antique bookstore door in the shaft of window light. The books, li...”

“I don't feel sorry for myself, Beck. Lots of people have shitty parents and roaches in the cabinets and stale, raw Pop-Tarts for dinner and a TV that barely works and a dad who doesn't care when hi...”

“I wondered what happened when you offered yourself to someone, and they opened you, only to discover you were not the gift they expected and they had to smile and nod and say thank you all the same.”

“Well?" Ron said finally, looking up at Harry. "How was it?"Harry considered it for a moment. "Wet," he said truthfully.Ron made a noise that might have indicated jubilation or disgust, it was hard ...”

“People always fall in love with the most perfect aspects of each others personalities. Who wouldnt? Anybody can love the most wonderful parts of another person. But thats not the clever trick. The ...”

“But I understood, now, that we dont live only for ourselves. Were connected by millions of shared experiences and dreams and nightmares, all tied together with compassion. I learned that even when ...”

“Wyatt told me once that if tenderness were a disease, Id be terminal.”

“We bumped into other silent lines of kids going in the same direction. We looked like we were much younger and our lines were headed to the cafeteria or recess or the carpool line. Or it couldve be...”