You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it.

If someone is really close with you, your getting upset or them getting upset is okay, and they don’t change because of it. It’s just part of the relationship. It happens. You deal with it.

I’d still thought that everything I thought about that night-the shame, the fear-would fade in time. But that hadn’t happened. Instead, the things that I remembered, these little details, seemed to grow stronger, to the...

For me, family means the silent treatment. At any given moment, someone is always not speaking to someone else.’Really,’ I said.We’re passive-aggressive people,’ she explained, taking a sip of her coffee. ‘Silence is our weapon...

He wasn’t what I’d thought he was; maybe he never had been. I wasn’t what I’d thought I was, either.

I hadn’t said goodbye. It had been easier, like always, to just disappear, sparing myself the messy details of another farewell. Now, my fingers hovered over my track pad, moving the cursor down to his...

Maybe a marriage, like a life, isn’t only about the Big Moments, whether they be bad or good. Maybe it’s all the small things–like being guided slowly forward, surely, day after day– that stretch out...

Timing clicking together, finally, pieces falling into place.

But if everything was always smooth and perfect, you’d get too used to that, you know? You have to have a little bit of disorganization now and then. Otherwise, you’ll never really enjoy it when...

that music is a total constant. That’s why we have such a strong visceral connection to it, you know? Because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even...

Do you even realize how happythe average teenage girl would be in your shoes? I have a credit card. We’reat the mall. I want to buy you things. It’s like adolescent nirvana.”- Cora

a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in you or the world, that one song stays the same, just...

That was the hard thing about grief, and the grieving. They spoke another language, and the words we knew always fell short of what we wanted them to say.

Life is full of screwups,” he said, chucking another paper at the split-level before taking the corner. “You’re supposed to fail sometimes. It’s a required part of the human existence.

All those clean, fresh starts had made me forget what it was like, until now, to be messy and honest and out of control. To be real.

School was my solace, and studying let me escape, allowing me to live a thousand vicarious lives.

Well, it’s true that I have been hurt in my life. Quite a bit. But it’s also true that I have loved, and been loved. and that carries a weight of its own. A greater...

The thing is, you can’t always have the best of everything. Because for a life to be real, you need it all: good and bad, beach and concrete, the familiar and the unknown, big talkers...

The worst thing you can do if you miss or need someone is let them know it.

He thought about this for a second. “True. But if you never really make friends, you probably don’t have anyone to be your 2 a.m. Which would kind of suck. I just looked at him...

It’s okay to accept things from people. It doesn’t make you weak or helpless.

Grief can be a burden, but also an anchor. You get used to the weight, how it holds you in place.

Accepting all the good and bad about someone. It’s a great thing to aspire to. The hard part is actually doing it.

There comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you’d better learn the sound of it. Otherwise you’ll never understand what it’s saying.

Together, we looked down at the tiny house, the sole thing on this vast, flat surface. Like the only person living on the moon. It could be either lonely or peaceful, depending on how you...