“I drove in last night,' he said. 'I couldn't sleep, it was too hot. So I went outside. I was feeling melancholy. Then I danced with a beautiful girl, and I felt better. What's your story?”

“I understood the word 'swoon'. It felt that way, like 'sweep' and 'moon' and 'woo', all those words smashed together in one word that stood for that feeling, right then.”

“It had never occurred to me that I could do something without permission. 'May I' was a way of life for a girl like me.”

“But while I'd be their daughter, while I'd eat the roast and come home from dates and wash the dishes, I would also be myself. I would love my mother, but I'd never want to be her again. I would never be what someone else wanted me to be. I would never laugh at a joke I didn't think was funny. I would never tell another lie. I would be the truth-teller, starting today. That would be tough.But I was tougher.”

“Loss.Thats what it was, a hole I could never fill. It would be bottomless.”

“I loved him like a fever. Then he left. He kicked through love like it was dust and he kept on walking.”

“I loved all the parts of him, even the ones I didn't understand.”