“His experience and training should have taught him that families are the cauldrons in which violence is brewed. (144)”

“I'd been trained in the art of psychotherapy, the excavation of the past as a means of untangling the present and rendering it livable. It's detective work, of sorts, crouching stealthily in the blind alleys of the unconscious. (179)”

“Optimism is denial for chumps with no life experience"."What's pessimism?" I said."Religion without God.”

“A good chunk of my life had been spent sorting out the scrambled communications, festering hostilities, and frozen affections that characterized families in turmoil. (257)”

“I saw this cartoon in the paper, once. That Viking, Hagar the Horrible? He’s standing on the mountaintop, holding his hands to the heavens, shouting “Why me?” And down from the heavens comes the answer: “Why not?” Maybe that’s the ultimate truth; what right to do I have to expect a smooth ride?”

“Creighton tried to smile again. The result fit him like panty hose on a mastiff.”

“Just because others have it worse doesn’t mean you have to suffer in silence.”