“From then on, we knew there could never be a problem bigger than Mom's ability to solve it.”

“At that moment we knew that as long as we used our brains, we were not victims. By striking out to write our own ticket, we would grow up to be like our mother, winners.”

“Sometimes when your life seems most out of control, you know there's a direction. I don't mean you can't have free will--in fact, that can be the most important part.”

“Writer's ResolutionEnough's Enough! No more shall IPursue the Muse and scorch the pieOr dream of Authoring a bookWhen I (unhappy soul) must cook;Or burn the steak while I wool-gather,And stir my spouse into a latherInvoking words like "Darn!" and suchAnd others that are worse (Oh, much!)Concerning culinary knackWhich I (HE says) completely lack.I'll keep my mind upon my work;I'll learn each boresome cooking quirk;This day shall mark a new leaf's turning...That smell! Oh Hell! The beans are burning!”

“What does crying ever really do for us? It doesn't solve our problems. It doesn't make us run faster or shoot better. If anything, crying just delays the solution to our problems.”

“I just sat there, staring out towards the darkness of the ocean and the starlight flashing off the crests of the waves and knew that we were all part of this bigger whole. That somehow I mattered in the course of things and a part of me would always have left its mark on this world.”

“It isn't the young men who call to her at night. It's the Forest. It's the whisper of the trees that there's somethine else, outside the fences. That there's still a world that's bigger than any she could ever comprehend and all she has to do is find the strength to go after it.”