“Don't you ever get a tattoo, understand? All is says is that you ain't open to change.”

“Life's only as bad as you make it out to be. It's go nothing to do with the way it is.”

“I knew that we'd never get there. I knew this, in the same way I knew Tati would never be a teacher, and that Benny would be the end of me. Life's about confirming what we already know. About making sure. ”

“I looked at Mr. McCommon, his hands smothering his face, his chest flinching. He had no idea that grief was a reward. That it only came to those who were loyal, to those who loved more than they were capable of. He had a garage, full of her belongings, and all I had was my guilt. It took on its own shape and smell and nestled in the pit of my body, and it would sleep and play and walk with me for decades to come.”

“And at the start of every new day, I still believed I could choose my own beginning, one that was scrubbed clean of everything past”

“He had no idea that grief was a reward. That it only came to those who were loyal, to those who loved more than they were capable of. ”

“Hope was based on the unknown, and I liked knowing things. Like that I was going to fail. Failure had better odds. ”