“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...”

“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.”

“I kept returning to this new and bizarre question: is there anything that actually is as it seems? Is anything perceptually straightforward? Maybe thats inherently impossible, because impressions a...”

“Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it's time for them to be hurt.”

“At the end of the day it's about how much you can bear, how much you can endure. Being together, we harm nobody; being apart, we extinguish ourselves.”

“Life is not a PG feel-good movie. Real life often ends badly. Literature tries to document this reality, while showing us it is still possible for us to endure nobly.”

“Some people don't understand the promises they're making when they make them," I said."Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway.”

“I think if I've learned anything about friendship, it's to hang in, stay connected, fight for them, and let them fight for you. Don't walk away, don't be distracted, don't be too busy or tired, don...”

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

“work at our responsibility as parents as if everything in life counted on it, because in fact everything in life does count on it.”

“Happiness [is] only real when shared”

“That's what people do who love you. They put their arms around you and love you when you're not so lovable.”