“It seemed like someone was always leaving someone, like that's the way the world worked—people were born and people died, people left and people came. It was like the world was saying you can't have everything you want at the same time.”

“Mama was always saying I was a brain snob, that I didn't like people who didn't think. I didn't know if that was snobby. Who wanted to walk around explaining everything to people all the time?”

“But it's what the world does to people. It makes some of us feel ugly and it makes some of us look like criminals, like angry fools.”

“You can't always be pushing people away. Someday nobody'll come back.”

“And freedom? Oh, freedom. Well that's just some people talking. Your prison is walking through this world all alone.”

“People are going to judge you all the time no matter what you do...Don't worry about other people. Worry about you.”

“Everything and everyone seemed like it was part of a long-ago time—when I was young and free and living.”