“You've turned my wounds into wisdom. Teaching me to learn from my mistakes. Which ones were mine and which were out of my control.”

“I learned that within the confines of God’s story, nothing had been stolen from me, but rather everything was given to me. My life, which felt so out of control, was in reality in complete control – God’s control.”

“At that moment I was sure. That I belonged in my skin. That my organs were mine and my eyes were mine and my ears, which could only hear the silence of this night and my faint breathing, were mine, and I loved them and what they could do.”

“Fairy tales were not my escape from reality as a child; rather, they were my reality -- for mine was a world in which good and evil were not abstract concepts, and like fairy-tale heroines, no magic would save me unless I had the wit and heart and courage to use it widely.”

“The divine bards are the friends of my virtue, of my intellect, of my strength. They admonish me that the gleams which flash across my mind are not mine, but God's; they had the like, and were not disobedient to the heavenly vision”

“You were mine to protect and take care of, Jilly-girl. And the better I learned you, the deeper you burrowed into my soul. Every time I took a bit more control, the higher you flew in my arms. You were an addiction and a mystery…you fed my soul and drove me over the edge.”