“I am the kind of broken they can't fix. I am no longer the same little girl they loved.”

“I wish i were a little girl again, because skinned knees are easier to fix than broken heart.”

“I am free, you see," she said, "to love or to withhold love. Love and dependence need no longer be the same thing to me. I am free to love. That is why I love you, and it is the way I love you.”

“I am not the same kind of Mormon girl I was when I was seven, eight, or eighteen years old.  I am not an orthodox Mormon woman like my mother.  I am an unorthodox Mormon woman with a fierce and hungry faith. ”

“My secret is that I need God—that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem to be capable of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love.”

“Because I am thought to be important I am left alone. They call me doctor but I am not the kind of doctor they believe I am. I cannot mend a broken leg and am useless to everyone onboard. By virtue of my professorship I am granted peace.”