“There ought, I thought, to be a ritual for being born twice - patched, retreaded and approved for the road.”

“I had hoped to make her strong and healthy, and now she may be too weak herself after this slow death, like my father's slow long death, to come to me. and I am here, futile, cut off from the ritual of family love and neighborhood and from giving strength and love to my dear brave grandmother's dying whom I loved above thought. and my mother will go, and there is the terror of having no parents, no older seasoned beings, to advise and love me in this world.”

“Then I thought, "No, I broke it myself. I broke it on purpose to pay myself back for being such a heel.”

“Why do my beheld beauties vanish and deform themselves as soon as I look twice.”

“Pensavo: dovrebbe esserci un rituale per nascere una seconda volta: rappezzata, rinchiusa e poi riconosciuta idonea a riprendere la via.”

“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my eyes and all is born again.”

“What I hate is the thought of being under a man's thumb," I had told Doctor Nolan. "A man doesn't have a worry in the world, while I've got a baby hanging over my head like a big stick, to keep me in line.”