It was a sign of growing up, when the dark made no more difference to you than the day.

[…]And his head is on fire with new things[…]he called himself the little blue hermit, scuttling across the sand in search of a new shell, but now he looks at the sky and knows that...

They sealed this promise by hooking pinkies, the way they used to, long ago, when promises didn’t hurt as much.

Jump, when they say, and ask, how high? It is the only way to truly fit in. And who would want to be any different?

Shall I tell her? Shall I be a kind and merciful narrator and take our girl aside? Shall I touch her new, red heart and make her understand that she is no longer one of...

It’s a shame for a woman’s history to be all about men-first boys, then other boys, then men, men, men. It reminds me of the way our school history textbooks were all about wars and...

And this is what being an artist means, being a poet? To sacrifice yourself for your art, sacrifice your heart for your art, because it’s only through something broken that something beautiful can grow.

‎”She was not a little girl heart-broken about him; she was a grown woman smiling at it all, but they were wet smiles.

you know what her punishment is for tormenting you way back when?” he said.I looked at him.He said, “her punishment is being her,

I knew that something profound was coming my way and I was just treading water, waiting for it. I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know where it was. I didn’t know if it...

The child who refuses to travel in the father’s harness, this is the symbol of man’s most unique capability. “I do not have to be what my father was. I do not have to obey...

I know it’s impossible for you to see peers this way, but when you’re older, you start to see them—the bad kids and the good kids and all kids—as people. They’re just people, who deserve...

Growing up, I never felt deprived. I was always happy. It seems only lately I’ve started seeing everything I didn’t have.

You don’t grow up, she reasoned now, until you begin to evaluate yourself, to recognize your good traits and acknowledge that you have a few faults.

The last remnants of Deanna the child–the idealist, the sheltered elite–had been torn loose by tonight’s tragedies, slain with the same bullet that had felled her would-be killer. She had no idea who the new...

If you happen to be white in a white country; pretty according to the dictates of fashion; rich in a country where money is adored, it’s almost impossible to grow up and to grow up...

If ever I was running, it was towards you.

The Fall will always be yours and mine…

He was thirteen that year, the age when children splinter off and abandon the old loves.

Except that today, oblivious to everyone, there is a hair standing tall inside his shorts: a single hair: long, black and shining. Sprouting out of nowhere, it stands rebelliously erect on his tiny barren orb,...

Wanderess, Wanderess, weave us a story of seduction and ruse. Heroic be the Wanderess, the world be her muse.’…I jot this phrase of invocation in my old leather-bound notebook on a bright, cold morning at...

Al día de hoy, al comprender la habilidad del mundo para presionarme hasta que haga lo que no hago, he madurado. Con qué actitud desempeño mi papel, eso depende únicamente de mi.

It was such a strange tormenting feeling when your daemon was pulling at the link between you; part physical pain deep in the chest, part intense sadness and love. Everyone tested it when they were...

Everyone else we knew growing up is the same: image of their parents, no matter how loud they told themselves they’d be different