Brooklyn James

“If you smile and laugh, people think you're happy. If you act calm and collected, people think you have it together.”

“Strange how completely adequate a person looks on paper, yet how inadequate they feel inside.”

“I found in my possession the ultimate choice. Without a moment's contemplation, I chose my life. I was in a good place, right where I needed to be.”

“How great it would be if our bad memories could be stored in our skin rather than our brains, and we could lather than up, scrubbing incessantly until they sloughed off the surface, gathering at the drain of the tun, completely washed away.”

“Contemplation is a roadmap to doubt. Mom calls me impulsive. I like to think i'm intuitive. If you think about something...anything...long enough, you can talk yourself right out of it.”

“To make an excuse sidesteps responsibility. But to make a choice automatically assumes responsibility.”

“Parents have funny ways of showing their love sometimes. Mom says my life is all black and white right now, as a kid. But she says when I get older, become a women, that changes, and there's a lot of gray area. I think adult love is more complicated.”

“...you make your own way in life. Sometimes that's hard for people to love, when they can't make you do what they want you to.”

“Within each of us, there lies the innate ability to survive, triumph, and overcome, rewriting the scripts of our own lives, having some power over our fate and the fate of generations to come. Nothing has to be 'just because that's the way it's always been.' -The Boots My Mother Gave Me”

“I remained completely conscious of Jeremiah. He smelled good. He looked good. He sounded good. And when he ran his tongue across the salt on that place between his index finger and his thumb, I wanted to be that little spot. -from chapter Lick, Drink, Suck!, The Boots My Mother Gave Me”

“He grinned, raising the glass to his lips, the liquid wetting his mouth. I wanted to be that glass. -from chapter Hurts So Good, The Boots My Mother Gave Me”

“How can a man, devoid of nutritional value, fill me up?”

“How did you know you loved Gramps? The way I felt when I was with him. The things he did to me when he wasn't even touching me at all. Just being near him filled me up inside. And those feelings fade through the years. They peak and valley, coming and going, then the real stuff kicks in, and you truly find out if you love one another. Sometimes you think you have grown apart or made a wrong decision. But then you watch him sitting across the table, the same place he's sat for fifty years, having his coffee and reading his newspaper. And you remember all those old feelings, realizing you wouldn't trade him for anything.”

“You can't fall in love with a man for who he is, and then expect him to change. Just love him, and if he's worth his salt, he'll give you what you need and be the man you need him to be.”

“My sixth grade sex education class quickly came to mind, and I wondered why masturbation was discussed when addressing the adolescent male, but not mentioned once in the 'normal' sexual development of the adolescent female. Go figure. Boys got masturbation. We got our period!" - Harley LeBeau, The Boots My Mother Gave Me”

“It's amazing how we push against things, things that in our depths we know we want, we know are good for us, yet we continue to deny ourselves with a conviction unmatched. Maybe we do it because we don't think we deserve that one true, good thing. Are we worthy? It's the most extraordinary thing, to embrace the life you never saw yourself living." -Harley LeBeau, The Boots My Mother Gave Me”

“I'm not sure who has the greater fear, mothers or daughters, that daughters will, in fact, become their mothers.”