“Lisa's baby was due about now. I've decided she had it and it was a girl. I've named her Rachel.”

“It wouldn't be New Year's without a resolution. I've resolved to take a moment every day for the rest of my life to appreciate what I have.”

“...when I came back, I found Mom sobbing at the kitchen table...Then I asked her what had happened.'Nothing,'she said. 'I was thinking about that man...I started thinking about...if he and his wife and their other child are okay, and I don't know. It just got to me.''I know,' I said, because I did know. Sometimes it's safer to cry about people you don't know than to think about people you really love.”

“I can't decide which is worse, no electricity or unreliable electricity.I wonder if I'll ever have to decide which is worse, life as we're living or no life at all.”

“Megan's right about my being a sinner. But she's wrong about hell. You don't have to wait until you're dead to get there.”

“I thought about how unlikely it was I would ever meet any guy,fall in love, get married, have babies. Especially since I was going to spend the rest of my life in the cellar, where, in the not too distant future, I'd turn into a toadstool. I hoped I'd be the poisonous variety.”

“But she's wrong about hell. You don't have to wait until you're dead to get there.”