“Panic was the worst thing. When you panicked, you couldn't see possibilities. Then came despair.”

“All that was a dream, you couldn't hold on, you couldn't depend on frosted glass and Debussy.”

“That was the thing about words, they were clear and specific-chair, eye, stone- but when you talked about feelings, words were too stiff, they were this and not that, they couldn't include all the meanings. In defining, they always left something out.”

“I wanted to tell her not to entertain despair like this. Despaire wasn't a guest, you didn't play its favorite music, find it a comfortable chair. Despair was the enemy."-white oleander”

“Who are you? the band sang. I tried to remember but I really couldn't say.”

“Wasn't that the way it always was? You didn't know, you couldn't tell, you just let it happen... Perhaps they didn't know themselves. Sometimes the line was very fine.”

“What can she possibly teach you, twenty seven names for tears?”