My grief is a windstorm. Sometimes I can stand straight up in it, and when I’m angry, I can lean into it and dare it to blow me over. But other times I need to hunker down, tuck around myself, and let it pummel my back.

Little by little, day by day, the sky became green.

Even the guy’s office was a turnoff – black leather couches, plastic plants, glass and chrome desk. Way to make your patients feel comfortable, buddy. And of course everything was perfectly lined up on the desk. His teeth were the only damn thing crooked in his office, and if you ask me, there’s something a little strange about a guy who needs to line up everything on his desk but doesn’t get his teeth fixed.

Le persone fanno da sempre cose orribili a quelli che amano.

Bien, pues esto es como caer directamente al agua helada. Tratas desesperadamente de nadar hacia la superficie, con los pulmones en llamas, todo enfocado hacia el pedazo de luz que hay encima de ti. Y cuando al final lo consigues, el hielo ha tapado el agujero.

I think people can be so crushed, so broken, that they’ll never be anything more than a fragment of a whole person.

To spend her life thinking I left her by choice. I would try harder. I would be a better wife. I would make it work. That was over a year ago. Nothing had gotten better.

The one thing I could never seem to shut out was my ache for simple, affectionate touch. I never knew how essential it was to my well being .

Mom would never get that lack of affection is abuse.

For me, it’s important that I experience and feel what the characters are feeling. So I put myself in those moments, in their thoughts, and let it happen naturally. I write what I feel.