Thicker than Water: A Memoir

by Kerry Washington

Being busy is one of the ways I create a sense of safety and control during times when I feel like there is none.

As miserable as she may have been at different points in their marriage, my mother was unable to inflict the kind of pain on my dad that she said he had placed on her and on our home.

The thing about an illusion is that, unless you are the magician, you don’t always see the trick when you are inside of it.

My prayer is that their spirits remain as powerful and buoyant on land as they are in the water. And in the light of day as well as at night.

Unlike my mother, I had not spoken vows that guaranteed loyalty to him, but like her, I still felt the pressure to treat him with love.

For years, I’d felt that the tradition of a bride being handed from her father to her husband—a formality that designated women as property in a household—was insulting.

Tsabary believes that our job is not to make our children better; rather, our children are opportunities for us to become better, to serve them, and to make room for who they are meant to be.

Blood may be thicker than water, but love is thicker than blood.

She is not unkind, but her desire to convey truth outweighs her need to sugarcoat.