“There is no normal. There's only what's right for you and being honest.”

“In my life I've had good days and bad days. Miserable days. Painful days. And no matter how bad the bad ones get, there's a mercy in them. Every single one of them ends.”

“there is something intriguing about knowing how things are going to turn out, but being constantly surprised about how they'll get there.”

“I find the title How to Be Good. Curious, I open it up. I'm disappointed to find it's fiction.”

“We all have our own patterns, I guess ... And whether we like it or not, they persist.”

“Panic, panic, can't panic. Think of food. Think of sugar. I am a sugar cube in cold water. I won't dissolve. Precise edges. Made up of tiny, regular, secure parts. If the water were hotter I would worry, but it's cold. I stay together. Precise. Clean. Surrounded, but whole.”

“Food has power. Nonna knew that. Ma did too. I know it now. And though it can't save me, it might help me, in some way. All I have besides food is grief.”