“My eyelids are my own private cave, he murmured. That I can go to anytime I want.”

“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.”

“YOU'RE IN MY MOUTH, I said. GET OUT OF MY MOUTH.”

“I am the drying meadow; you the unspoken apology; he is the fluctuating distance between mother and son; she is the first gesture that creates a quiet that is full enough to make the baby sleep.My genes, my love, are rubber bands and rope; make yourself a structure you can live inside.Amen.”

“and I get refill number three or four and the wine is making my bones loose and it's giving my hair a red sheen and my breasts are blooming and my eyes feel sultry and wise and the dress is water.”

“My genes, my love, are rubber bands and rope - make yourself a structure you can live inside.”

“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.”