“The only time you truly become an adult is when you finally forgive your parents for being just as flawed as everyone else.”

“Once you've crossed over into that realm of nothingness, your story only really stays in the minds of those closest to you. And when they too vanish...”

“But can you ever excise a bad parent? Though you might come to terms with all that they have psychologically bequeathed you, they can never really be expunged. They're the stubborn, permanent stain that will never entirely vanish in the wash.”

“But the strangest of all sensations is the moment after you have been freed of the baby--and the baby of you--and you are handed this tiny shriveled creature to hold for the first time... and you feel a mixture of unbelievable instant love and desperate fear.”

“...hate is a hard thing to sustain. Grief isn't. Grief is something that can stay with you for a very long time”

“Wie bald 'nicht jetz' 'nie' wird. How soon 'not now' becomes 'never'.”

“There were moments when I felt seriously unhinged; when I was convinced that I would never, ever recover from what had happened, when it was absolutely clear to me that life from this point on would be constant agony ...”