If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? Or are you always a sister, even when the other half of the equation is gone?

I wondered about the explorers who’d sailed their ships to the end of the world. How terrified they must have been when they risked falling over the edge; how amazed to discover, instead, places they...

I wondered why the head could move so swiftly while the heart dragged its feet.

Whether it was power they sought, or revenge, or love-well, those were all just different forms of hunger. The bigger the hole inside you, the more desperate you became to fill it.

He gently touched his mother’s cheek, felt her sorrow slip over his fingertips.

I don’t understand why it’s a sin if you love something and want to keep it from having to suffer.

When it comes to memories, the good and the bad never balance.

Huh?” I say.

We take the elevator to the third floor, to the office of Dr. Harrison Chance. His name alone has put me off. Why not Dr. Victor?

Just because you didn’t put a name to something did not mean it wasn’t there.

Here’s what I hadn’t realized: the mother you haven’t seen for almost thirty-six years isn’t your mother, she’s a stranger. Sharing DNA doesn’t make you fast friends. This wasn’t a joyous reunion. It was just...

When you’re a parent you find yourself looking at the unknown that is your child, trying to find a piece of yourself inside her, because sometimes that is what it takes to claim.

The thing that most people didn’t understand…was that a rape victim and a victim of a fatal accident were both gone, forever. The difference was that the rape victim still had to go through the...

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...

I don’t know what you think of me. And you certainly would never picture us together. But probably peanut butter was just peanut butter for a long time, before someone ever thought of pairing it...

Just because it’s fiction doesn’t mean it’s any less true.

It felt like I’d been living underground, and for a moment, I’d been given this glimpse of the sky. Once you’ve seen that, how can you go back where you came from?

The music we listen to may not define who we are. But it’s a damn good start.

What must you break apart in order to bring a family close together? Bread, of course.

Men. You can’t live with them…and you can’t legally shoot them. I tossed out my husband eight years ago and got a llama instead. Best decision I ever made.

I don’t know whether you can look at your past and find, woven like the hidden symbols on a treasure map, the path that will point to your final destination.

She wanted him to tell her that when you love someone so hard and so fierce, it was all right to do things that you knew were wrong.

So you know what mean when I say that I don’t think anyone who falls in love has a choice. You’re just pulled to that person like true north, whether it’s good for you or...

At seventeen, the smallest crises took on tremendous proportions; someone else’s thoughts could take root in the loam of your own mind; having someone accept you became as vital as oxygen. Adults, light years away...

The best way to prevent a heartache was to cushion the coming blow.

When a freedom is taken away from you, I suppose, you recognize it as a privilege, not a right.

A long time ago someone told me that a story will tell itself, when it’s ready.

Sometimes knowing what’s right isn’t a rational decision, or even what works on paper. Sometimes leaving is the best course of action after all.

The saddest day in the world will be the one when she stops pretending.

So much of the language of love was like that: you devoured someone with your eyes, you drank in the sight of him, you swallowed him whole. Love was substance, broken down and beating through...

Do you know how there are moments when the world moves so slowly you can feel your bones shifting, your mind tumbling? When you think that no matter what happens to you for the rest...

I was starting to see that what looks like garbage from one angle might be art from another. Maybe it did take a crisis to get to know yourself; maybe you needed to get whacked...

I have always envied people who believe strongly in religion, people who could face a tragedy by praying and know that it would be all right.

I always hated when my scars started to fade, because as long as I could still see them, I knew why I was hurting.

Babies don’t come with instruction booklets. You’d learn the same way we all do — you’d read up on dinosaurs, you’d Google backhoes and skidders. And you don’t need a penis to go buy a...

It was one thing to sacrifice your own life for someone else’s. It was another thing entirely to bring into the mix a third party – a third party who knew you, who trusted you...

Three months ago, if you asked me, I would have told you that if you really loved someone, you’d let them go. But now I look at you, and I dreamed about Maggie, and I...

What you didn’t tell someone was just as debilitating as what you did.

From that point of view, I realized that my hole was not miles deep after all. My father, in fact, could stand on the bottom and it only reached up to his chest.Darkness, you know,...

The Native Americans know that wolves are mirrors for humans. What they show us are our strengths and weaknesses… When I lived with the wolves, I was proud of the reflection of myself. But when...

I would prove to you that being different isn’t a death sentence but a call to arms.

McAfee, I could try this case in my sleep and still win.””Guess that’s your plan, then, since you’re clearly dreaming.

I suddenly remember being very little and being embraced by my father. I would try to put my arms around my father’s waist, hug him back. I could never reach the whole way around the...

There’s some illogical part of me that still believes if you want superman to show up, first there’s got to be someone worth saving.

Just because a person didn’t admit that something had changed didn’t mean it hadn’t happened.

You know someone’s right for you when the things they don’t have to say are even more important than the things they do.

A mathematical formula for happiness:Reality divided by Expectations.There were two ways to be happy:improve your reality or lower your expectations.

Would you give up your vengeance against someone you hate if it meant saving someone you love? Would you want your dreams to come true if it meant granting your enemy’s dying wish?

Edward: You know what the difference is between a dream and a goal? he used to say to me. A plan.

Memories aren’t stored in the heart or the head or even the soul, if you ask me, but in the spaces between any given two people.