[she used to say that] each of us has a veil between ourselves and the rest of the world – like a bride wears on her wedding day—except this kind of veil is invisible. we...

We have lunch at ten-forty-five,” Colin said. A stupidly early lunch. At our school, the older you get, the stupider your lunch period.

…if you smile for no reason at all you will actually start to feel happy

She’s called the secretary, but as far as I can tell she basically runs the school.

Sometimes you never feel meaner than the moment you stop being mean. It’s like how turning on a light makes you realize how dark the room had gotten. And the way you usually act, the...

Well, it’s simple to love someone,” she said. “But it’s hard to know when you need to say it out loud.

Didn’t you ever have a father yourself? You don’t want him for a reason. You want him because he’s your father.’ So I figured it’s because I never had a father that I don’t want...

And when the veil lifts, we can see the world as it really is, just for those few seconds before it settles down again. We see all the beauty, and cruelty, and sadness, and love.

What’s the burn scale?