“if you don't know what to do in this life and you feel depressed,lonely and sad,you should look up into the sky and you will find the answer”

“You should prize this pain of yours. This is what will make you human all the way through. Nothing less will do that.”

“Marry, don't marry,' Auntie Aya says as we unfold layers of dough to make an apple strudel. Just don't have your babies unless it's absolutely necessary.'How do I know if it's necessary?'She stops and stares ahead, her hands gloved in flour. 'Ask yourself, Do I want a baby or do I want to make a cake? The answer will come to you like bells ringing.' She flickers her fingers in the air by her ear. 'For me, almost always, the answer was cake.”

“Here is something you have to understand about stories: They point you in the right direction but they can't take you all the way there. Stories are crescent moons; they glimmer in the night sky, but they are most exquisite in their incomplete state. Because people crave the beauty of not-knowing, the excitement of suggestion, and the sweet tragedy of mystery.”

“You want to protect you children, don't you? You let them out of your body but you never let them all the way out.”

“Run away from greatness and greatness will follow you.”

“People look at you and forget about things.”