“It was the first time she'd discovered something she really didn't want to find, and she didn't know what to do once she'd found it.”

“All teenagers knew this was true. The process of growing up was nothing more than figuring out what doors hadn't yet been slammed in your face. For years, parents tell you that you can be anything, have anything, do anything. That was why she'd been so eager to grow up-until she got to adolescence and hit a big fat wall ofreality. As it turned out, she couldn't have anything she wanted. You didn't get to be pretty or smart or popular just because you wanted it. You didn't control your own destiny, you were too busy trying to fit in.”

“Your mama finds you like that, she's going to pitch a fit." "The only way she'd find out is if you told her I'd come out here with you, and then she'd be too angry at you to yell at me." "Guess we're partners in crime, then.”

“Maybe this was the job of a mother: to buy time for her child, no matter what. Even if it meant doing something she'd rather not; even if it left her flat on her back.”

“she told me she'd be a phoenix." The image of the mythical creature rising from the ashes glitters in my mind. "They don't really exist." "She said that depends on whether or not there's someone who can see them.”

“Until then she hadn't considered that there was a trade off, that she might not fit anymore in places where she'd been comfortable.”

“Unlike Elise, who could discover parts of a person they didn't even know were absent, you specialized in tangible, but that, I feared, was only a matter of time.”