“Don't be sorry, Callie,' he says with a heavy-hearted sigh. 'You have your own sad story.”

“you got a sad story, ruth,' mimba said. 'but not sad-sad. you here with me and cato and all us together now. you have a happy-sad story. best you can get in this life is happy-sad. but you always gotta remember your own mama that birthed you. even though you only got a crumb of her story, you still got to say her name out loud. you always honor your dead, else you get trouble from them, sure.”

“The sadness you feel is not your own. It's his sadness you feel in your heart, Amy, for missing you.”

“When you are sad, your heart pumps the tragedy all through your body and fills your mind with the story of your suffering, and you tell that story to yourself over and over.”

“This is a bad story.”“Sorry. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have told you.”“No, you should,” I say.“But—”“I don’t want there to be bad stories and me not know them.”

“Whatever they may say, your story is truly your own. You have a responsibility to it, the way a father has to a child”