“You’re not alone. You’re not isolated. I do know that kind of pain. I walked that path, empty of joy. I smiled outwardly, trying to hide my insecurities and fear which I stuck in the basement of my heart...”

“God remains the same—faithful, loving and powerful—through changes big and small.”

“God loves us mucho, so much that He desires more, much more for us.”

“I stuck my tongue out at him because I was feeling exceptionally mature.”

“That’s nice of you, but it’s not necessary to loan me a car.”“I loan you cars all the time.”“And I almost always destroy them or lose them. I have terrible luck with cars.” “Working at Rangeman is a high-stress job, and you’re one of our few sources of comic relief. I give you a car and my men start a pool on how long it will take you to trash it. You’re a line item in my budget under entertainment.”

“It was her first book, an indigo cover with a silver moonflower, an art nouveau flower, I traced my finger along the silver line like smoke, whiplash curves. ... I touched the pages her hands touched, I pressed them to my lips, the soft thick old paper, yellow now, fragile as skin. I stuck my nose between the bindings and smelled all the readings she had given, the smell of unfiltered cigarettes and the espresso machine, beaches and incense and whispered words in the night. I could hear her voice rising from the pages. The cover curled outward like sails.”

“I grab a snap pea and bite off the end of it, and then I pick up my glass of milk. I'm overwhelmed by the emptiness in my middle that food won't fill.”