“Tinys do not deserve safety. If they are to prove themselves, they must suffer and die or suffer and survive.”

“They knew, though, she would not suffer as they had suffered. She was perfect. They were scarred.”

“Same old boring boring story America can’t stop telling itself. What is this sicko fascination? Every book and movie practically has to have a little, right? But why do you think all those runaways are on the streets tearing up their veins with junk and selling themselves so they can sleep in the gutter? What do you think the alternative was at home?”

“He said, You're so tiny, like a doll, you look like you might break. I wanted him to break me. Part of me did.”

“Maybe i would become a mermaid... i would live in the swirling blue-green currents, doing exotic underwater dances for the fish, kissed by sea anemones, caressed by seaweed shawls. I would have a doliphin friend. He would have merry eyes and thick flesh of a god. My fingernails would be tiny shells and my skin would be like jade with light shining through it I would never have to come back up”

“No matter how bad things get, you can always see the beauty in them. The worse things get, the more you have to make yourself see the magic in order to survive.”

“At least the girls in stories were alive before they died.”