“But I knew one more thing. That people who denied who they were or where they had been were in the greatest danger.”

“The people who denied who they were or where they had been were in the greatest danger. They were blind sleepwalkers on tightropes, fingers scoring thin air.”

“It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.”

“She liked things that had been written by people who had lived short, ugly, and tragic lives. Or, who at least, were English.”

“I knew how severe I had been and how bad things had been. The one who is doing his work and getting satisfaction from it is not the one who poverty bothers.”

“Newt had said I loved Ivy more than the church. I wasn’t going to deny it, but there were all kinds of love, and how shallow would I be if my anchor to reality was a hunk of real estate? It was the people who were there that made it mean something.”