“I'm afraid to have a boyfriend. I don't know how to do that and not lose who I want to be. And I'm afraid of what it means to be close to a guy, a guy I might really like."There it was: the truth.”

“And then what would she say? I just told your brother that I love him, and I'm afraid that he hates me? I can't be alone with Turner because I'm afraid he might ravish me? I can't be alone with Turner because I'm afraid I might ravish him.”

“Sometimes I wish I could just be like everyone else my age and not think at all.”

“I couldn't shake the impulse to help him. It seemed that the older I got the more I believed that everyone, homeless or not, deserved to be treated at least like a human.”

“A tiny part of me wanted to kick him, too, not because he was homeless, but because he was a judgmental asshole.”

“Religion seemed to me like one group of people telling another group that their color of red was the best. And that everyone had to believe that, or else.”

“I'd choked back so many tears, they'd become a lake of sadness in my belly.”