That is exactly what I learned. That evil can be so ordinary.

This is what love does to you, Jane thought. It makes you afraid, not brave. It gives the world carnivorous teeth that are poised at any moment to rip away chunks of your life.

That was the day she learned she was the daughter of a lioness.

But that’s what our ancestors did, Millie. This is where we all come from. Some part of you, some ancient memory deep in your brain, recognizes this continent as home.

Why do we always treat kids like the enemy?” “Because they so often behave like an alien species?

Why was it always women who had to do the forgiving? she’d wondered.

Laura would never be so easily intimidated. She was braver than he could ever be, brave enough to wave her ugly scars like scarlet flags.

Charles threw down the knife. Its thud was lost in the high-spirited bedlam of young men let loose upon a task so gruesome, the only sane response was perverse frivolity.

Sometimes, she thought, you’ve got to accept a helping hand. Sometimes you’ve got to admit you can’t do it all by yourself.

It’s just something I’ll have to live with... The possibility of getting sick. Not knowing if I’ll live another two years or forty years. I keep telling myself, I could walk outside and get hit by a bus. That’s the way life is. Just surviving another day comes with its own risk.