“When I was born, I was almost fourteen years old. That's why I was able to understand more easily than most what it was all about.”

“I'm my mother's first child, born when she was almost fourteen years old."Think of it," I said to Laura when I turned twelve. "I'm almost Mother Sarah's age when she was married."Laura looked at me, her squinty eyes even more narrowed. "You could have your own old man as a husband," she said."Shut up," I had said.And she had laughed.”

“Fourteen hundred and thirty-one.” I blinked. “What's that?” “The year I was born, which is not, as you'll note, yesterday.”

“You want me to flash you" I saidHe nodded vigorously, like I'd asked if he wanted fries with that."And then you'll pass on?""That's all I want. So, yeah."I could almost believe that a fourteen-year-old boy could find deep spiritual peace from a pair of boobs.”

“Crushes are for fourteen year olds. Ellie, I would describe what's happening to you as falling.”

“The most difficult thing about writing, I'm discovering, is not the act of constructing the sentences themselves. It's deciding what to put in, and where, and what to leave out. I'm constantly second-guessing myself. I chose the accident, but I could just as easily have started with any point during my thirty-five years of life before that. Why not start with: " I was born in the year 19-, in the city of -?”