I asked them: Does it hurt? And the scar people nodded, yes. But it felt somehow wonderful, they said. For one long second, it felt like the world was holding them close.
We’re all getting too smart. Our brains are just getting bigger and bigger, and the world dries up and dies when there’s too much thought and not enough heart.
The world can ask you to participate, but it’s a day-today decision if you want to agree to that proposal.
Several of the girls at the party had had sex, something which sounded appealing but only if it could happen with blindfolds in a time warp plus amnesia
I like to smile at the men who look mean so they know I believe in their better selves. That makes a difference in the world. This is how you might be able to reform a possible rapist without ever going to psychology school.
Light is good company, when alone; I took my comfort where I found it, and the warmest yellow bulb in the living-room lamp had become a kind of radiant babysitter all its own.
I knew if I ate anything of hers again, it would lkely tell me the same message: help me, I am not happy, help me — like a message in a bottle sent in each meal to the eater, and I got it. I got the message.
Last day I saw him human, he was sad about the world.
When the light at Vernon turned green, we stepped into the street and George grabbed my hand and the ghosts of our younger selves crossed with us.
Most teenage girls don’t give old people the time of day which is sad because all old people do all the time is think about how nice it was to be a teenager so long ago.
You can’t predict the outcome. You can’t raise a child and then tell them what to think.
I just like the feeling of finding the right word in my mind and employing it. I get pleasure from that feeling. I prefer language to gesture. I figured other people might, too.
It is these empty spaces you have to watch out for, as they flood up with feeling before you even realize what’s happened.
My eyelids are my own private cave, he murmured. That I can go to anytime I want.
Sherrie would be there, and the last time I’d seen her at a social event she burst into tears when she saw me and ran out of the room. You’re upset, I’d yelled after her, meanly.
At lunch you order steamed vegetables because you’re remembering that you have a heart too. You feel humbled by your heart, it works so hard. You want to thank it. You give your heart a little pat
He said, I always thought the woman I’d marry would hit me easy, in a bolt of lightning, and there is not lightning there is not even thunder there is not even rain.
She could feel it brimming on her lips, that superstar smile, the bow shape, the teeth long and solid tombstones.
Ponytail girl leaned over and she and the tall boy kissed and it was carcinogen gums and magical.
We end up kissing her for an hour, and her lips are so soft they are almost like a joke.
But rock, of course, is many colors. The distinction is subtle, but it is not just one plain grey, that I can promise…I spent five hours one afternoon just staring at a rock trying to see into its color scheme.
That’s the thing with handmade items. They still have the person’s mark on them, and when you hold them, you feel less alone.
I peeled the skin off a grape in slippery little triangles, and I understood then that I would be undressing every item of food I could because my clothes would be staying on.
Many kids, it seemed, would find out that their parents were flawed, messed-up people later in life, and I didn’t appreciate getting to know it all so strong and early.
…after all, she had birthed us alone, diapered and fed us, helped us with homework, kissed and hugged us, poured her love into us. That she might not actually know us seemed the humblest thing a mother could admit.
And, sure, fine, I do check my phone about every two minutes, but so do a lot of people, and it’s better than smoking, that’s what I say. It’s the new, lung-safe cigarette.
It was ridiculous, at times, how many tears one body could produce.
But the sky is interesting, it changes all the time.
I wanted to bathe in plum juice, rediscover my body and adorn it in kiwi circles.
It is difficult to want to tell a grave that it is not immortal. It’s so obvious at that point.
Nothing…They’re from nothing,’ he said. ‘They came in the book…I found the book and inside were these flowers…They were in the book when I bought it… I bought it used…Because they meant something.”‘To someone else.’ ‘To someone.
We’re like the couple on the sitcom that has good sparks but never get together for the sake of ratings.
It was the kind of conversation you could only hold in whispers.
I give boring people something to discuss over corn.
I like birthday cake. It’s so symbolic. It’s a tempting symbol to load with something more complicated than just ‘Happy birthday!’ because it’s this emblem of childhood and a happy day.