“Truth, justice...I always thought they were absolutes, like God. And Mom. And apple pie.But you could make apple pie from Ritz crackers. You could make cakes without sugar. We learned how to fake things, during the war.”

“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.”

“Faith seems to grab people and not let go, but hope is a double-crosser. It can beat it on you anytime; it's your job to dig in your heels and hang on. Must be nice to have hope in your pocket, like loose change you could jingle through your fingers.”

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

“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.”

“I always wanted a father. Any kind. A strict one, a funny one, one who bought me pink dresses, one who wished I was a boy. One who traveled, one who never got up out of his Morris chair. Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief. I wanted shaving cream in the sink and whistling on the stairs. I wanted pants hung by their cuffs from a dresser drawer. I wanted change jingling in a pocket and the sound of ice cracking in a cocktail glass at five thirty. I wanted to hear my mother laugh behind a closed door.”

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