Being rich and coming from a distinguished family background doesn’t guarantee happiness, Abby. In fact, it might make happiness harder to find because you have to live up to akk that expectation.

I used to have this toy, a magic slate. You wrote or drew on it and then, just by pulling up the plastic cover, everything you did disappeared and you could start new. Maybe everyone...

I don’t know if it’s for the better, but I do know people aren’t static. We all change from day to day.

It’s funny how when you’re little, you miss all the little lies. They float right past you, but you don’t wonder about them much. For a long time, you think this is just something adults...

Look at you, standing there in your iron- gray dress, feeling piousand self- righteous while you starve small children!

We had been separated by time and distance and events so long, it was as if we had to get to know each other again, but if it was possible to fall in love with...

I wish the night would end,I wish the day’d begin,I wish it would rain or snow,or the wind would blow,or the grass would grow,I wish I had yesterday,I wish there were games to play…

Yes, I am a prisoner of sorts, but my prison isn’t the house. It’s my own thoughts that lock me up!

Where was that fragile, golden-fair Dresden doll I used to be? Gone.Gone like porcelain turned into steel-made into someone who wouldalways get what she wanted, no matter who or what stood in her way.

All right, Chris, you’ve given me a breather. I’m prepared foranything.And thank you for saying all of that, and for loving me, for youhaven’t gone unloved, or unadmired, yourself.” I kissed him quickly onthe lips,...

And why is it all men thinkeverything a woman writes is trivial or trashy-or just plain sillydrivel? Don’t men have romantic notions? Don’t men dream of findingthe perfect love?

Love, in short is the most dangerous emotion human can experience

He won’t listen to the music, and I can’t turn it off.

We’re better off not worrying about ourselves, and to do that, we have to worry about others.

We’re going to change. We’re going to throw out what’s worse in usand keep what’s best. But come hell or high water, we three will sticktogether, all for one, one for all. We’re going to...

After it’s all over, the early childhood, a chain of birthdays woven with candlelight, piles of presents, voices of relatives singing and praising your promise and future, after the years of schooling, fitting yourself into...

People make the rules of society, not God.

Chris, soap people are likeus-they seldom go outdoors. And when they do, we only hear about it,never see it. They loll about in living rooms, bedrooms, sit in thekitchens and sip coffee or stand up...

And when I fall in love,” I began, “I will build a mountain to touch the sky. Then, my lover and I will have the best of both worlds, reality firmly under our feet, while...

Cathy, don’t look so defeated. She was only trying to put us downagain.Maybe nothing did work out right for her, but that doesn’t mean we aredoomed. Let’s go forth tomorrow with no great expectations of...

For when Iwaltzed with Chris, I’d made him someone else.

Whatever doesn’t destroy you, makes you stronger. Hardships have a way of toughening us, if they don’t kill us.

What’s done is done. Say good-bye to the past, and hello to the future And we’re wasting time when already we’ve wasted enough. We’ve got everything ahead, waiting for us.”Just the right words to make...

…I’m a fool. I expect too much, then I’m angry because nothing ever works out the way I want. When I was young and full of hopes and aspirations, I didn’t know I would get...

You were right the first time, Cathy. It was a stupid, silly story.Ridiculous! Only insane people would die for the sake of love. I’llbet you a hundred to one a woman wrote that junky romantic...

From this day forward, I vowedto myself, I was in control of my life. Not fate, notGod, not even Chris was ever again going to tell me what to do, ordominate me in any way....

Grief, no matter how you try to cater to its wail, has a way of fading away.

I don’t think she’s ever coming back.

Chris was in the rocker, fully clothed, and was strumming idly onCory’s guitar. “Dance, ballerina, dance,” he softly chanted, and hissinging voice wasn’t bad at all. Maybe we could work as musicians—atrio -if Carrie ever...

If a little hill of happiness would satisfy Chris, good for him. Butafter all these years of striving, hoping, dreaming, longing-I wanted amountain high! A hill wasn’t enough.

Promises are lies wrapped in pretty ribbons -Cinnamon

Pain always makes me antagonistic–are you any different?

I saw myself dancing alone, always alone,

We all have to love you, and believe inyou, and think you are looking out for our best interests. But look at us, Momma, and really see us.

Through books Cathy and I have lived a zillion lives . . . our vicarious wayto feel alive.

Or was Chris thinking, as I was, that if we went tothe police and told our story, our faces would be splashed on the frontpages of every newspaper in the country? Would the glare of...

All pain seemed to come with lots of blood, and lots of mental anguish, too. I already knew about that. Maybe that was the worst kind of pain, because nobody knew about it but you.

That’s the way all life’s battles are won.. You don’t look at the overall picture. You take one step, then another, and another… until you arrive at your destination.

Love doesn’t always come when you want it to. Sometimes it just happens, despite your will.

Was I prone to sadness and melancholy? How could anyone like that? It wasn’t that I wanted it; it was that I was so used to hard rains, I couldn’t help expecting a cloudburst every...

We haven’t remained idle, twiddling our thumbs while you were off having a good time. Through books Cathy and I have lived a zillion lives . . . our vicarious way to feel alive.

You are an intriguing combination, half child, half seductress, half angel.”I laughed sort and bitterly. “That’s what all men like to think about women. Little girls they have to take care of–when I know for...

I make myself keep on loving you, despite what you do. I’ve got to love you. We all have to love you, and believe inyou, and think you are looking out for our best interests....

And thank you for saying all of that, and for loving me, for you haven’t gone unloved, or unadmired, yourself.

It’s better not to make a promise than to make one you can’t keep.

God, He didn’t write the scripts for the puny little players downhere.We wrote them ourselves-with each day we lived, each word we spoke,each thought we etched on our brains. And Momma had written herscript, too.And...

I brushed it until it shone and looked somewhat like it used to look,only far thinner, and less glorious.

The Bible said, as Chris quoted one memorable day, there was a time foreverything. I figured my time for happiness was just ahead, waitingfor me.

Children are very wiseintuitively; they know who loves them most, and who only pretends.

just on the verge ofbecoming a woman, and in these three years and almost five months, I’dreached maturity. I was older than the mountains outside. The wisdomof the attic was in my bones, etched on...