“Memories do not always soften with time; some grow edges like knives.”

“Perhaps growing up meant we put our knives away and feigned ignorance of the damage.”

“It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time. ”

“I stir in bed and the memories rise out of me like a buzz of flies from a carcass. I crave to be rid of them...”

“you can't really know the person standing before you, because always there is some missing piece”

“What we end up calling history is a kind of knife, slicing down through time. A few people are hard enough to bend its edge. But most won't even stand close to the blade. I'm one of those. We don't bend anything.”

“For time and eternity there have been fathers like Nathan who simply can see no way to have a daughter but to own her like a plot of land. To work her, plow her under, rain down a dreadful poison upon her. Miraculously, it causes these girls to grow. They elongate on the pale slender stalks of their longing, like sunflowers with heavy heads. You can shield them with your body and soul, trying to absorb that awful rain, but they'll still move toward him. Without cease they'll bend to his light.”