“The damage can fester under layers of time and change, and an ignorant, thoughtless remark can easily reopen the wound.”

“They would go back to their homes and put me to rest, a letter from the past never reopened or reread.”

“How can I be expected to be trapped for the rest of my life by a man frozen in time?”

“She sat in her room on the couch my parents had given up on and worked on hardening herself. Take deep breaths and hold them. Try to stay still for longer and longer periods of time. Make yourself small and like a stone. Curl the edges of yourself up and fold them under where no one can see. ~pg 29, Susie's sister Lindsey dealing with grief. ”

“I knew something as I watched: almost everyone was saying goodbye to me. I was becoming one of the many little-girl-losts. They would go back to their homes and put me to rest, a letter from the past never to be reopened or reread. And I could say goodbye to them, wish them well, bless them somehow for their good thoughts. A handshake in the street, a dropped item picked up and retrieved and handed back, or a friendly wave from the distant window, a nod, a smile, a moment when the eyes lock over the antics of a child.”

“No one can pull anyone back from anywhere. You save yourself or you remain unsaved.”

“Learn a language of another country and then you can go to that country: a place where the problems of your family will not follow. A language they do not speak.”