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There are more songs living inside her than there are leaves on her tree.
we have to find a way to discipline our hearts so that their cruelty doesn’t turn us into hurt animals.
Words exist only in theory. And then one ordinary day you run into a word that exists only in theory. And you meet it face to face. And then that word becomes someone you know. That word becomes someone you hate. And you take that word with you wherever you go. And you can’t pretend it isn’t there.
Everybody in my family’s an addict. But, see, it’s not where I come from that matters—it’s where I’m going.”
I guess God did a lot of giving. But He did a lot of taking, too. Exhibit A: He took my mom. But if He hadn’t taken my mom, I wouldn’t have Dad. And I wouldn’t have Mima.
When is the right time for anything? Who knows? Living is an art, not a science.
I didn’t understand the logic of this thing we called living. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to.
there were only two things you needed to learn in life. You needed to learn how to forgive. And you needed to learn how to be happy.”
I didn’t feel like a man just then. I felt like a five-year-old boy who didn’t want to do anything except play in a pile of leaves. A five-year-old boy with a greedy heart who wanted his grandmother to live forever.
And prayer? How could you pray to a God you wanted to hit?
it’s not other people who make you feel like you’re alone. You do it to yourself.”
Show me a man without regrets and I’ll show you a man without a conscience.”
“Wouldn’t it be great, Sally, if we could just push the delete button in our brains and forget the times somebody hurt us?”
The world had changed. And this new world was quiet and sad.
just because my love isn’t perfect doesn’t mean i don’t love you.
And then I thought that maybe life was like that—there would always be something scratching at the door. And whatever was scratching would just scratch and scratch until you opened the door.
“I hate God.” “That’s an easy thing to say. Let you in on a little secret, Salvie. Hating God is a lot of work.” “He doesn’t need her. I do.”
“Some people collect stamps. Me? I collect seventeen-year-old kids.”
Highways are nice and paved, and they have signs telling you which way to go. Life isn’t like that at all.
I wondered if that’s what death sounded like. Like a snowflake falling on the ground.
‘Some people are born on third base, and they go through life thinking they hit a triple.’”
In the distance, I can see a storm coming in, the dark clouds and the lightning on the horizon moving toward me. I wait and I wait and I wait for the storm. And then it comes, and the rains wash away the nightmares and the memories. And I’m not afraid.
There was nothing wrong with getting angry. It was what you did with that anger that mattered.
