“Maybe learning to be human was about learning to live in pain, not trying to figure out how to live pain-free. (156)”

“Maybe the trying is the thing. Maybe it doesn't get better than that. Maybe you never quite get there. And maybe that's okay.”

“The roots of any evil deed can be traced to the perpetrator's refusal to experience pain.”

“There's no original evil left in the world. Everyone's just recycling pain. (257)”

“Woody Allen once said that 90 percent of life is about showing up. Ninety percent of healing people in psychological pain is shutting up - at least long enough to let them bleed the truth. That sounds easy, but it isn't. (68)”

“Everyone - rich or poor, black or white, educated or not - is in emotional turmoil, in some sort of pain. (51)”

“I figured anybody who talked about church as much as she did was using it a little like cocaine anyhow.”