“I felt the crumpled paper that had taken the place of my lungs expand as if released from a fist.”

He was also removing all traces of any tiny leftover parts, and suddenly a ritual which I’d always found incestuous and gross seemed to me more like a desperate act on Joseph’s part to get out, to leave, to extract every little last remnant and bring it into open air.

It is so often surprising, who rescues you at your lowest moments.

Kissing George was a little like rolling in caramel after spending years surviving off rice sticks.

The stories themselves haunt, they stick around, they linger, inhabiting a little corner of the reader’s brain and resurfacing to evoke mystery or sadness or longing.

I am the drying meadow; you the unspoken apology; he is the fluctuating distance between mother and son.

The wine glasses are empty except for that one undrinkable red spot at the bottom.

Large meadows are lovely for picnics and romping, but they are for the lighter feelings. Meadows do not make me want to write.

But the sky is interesting, it changes all the time.

I could feel the tears beginning to collect in my throat again, but I pushed them apart, away from each other. Tears are only a threat in groups.

If everything kept to its normal progression, we would live with the sadness-cry and then walk-but what really breaks us cleanest are the losses that happen out of order.

She is the first gesture that creates a quiet that is full enough to make the baby sleep. My genes, my love, are rubber bands and rope; make yourself a structure you can live inside. Amen.

That’s the thing with handmade items. They still have the person’s mark on them, and when you hold them, you feel less alone.

The most so far, because she found the saddest thing of all to be the simple truth of her capacity to move on.

We hit the sidewalk, and dropped hands. How I wished, right then, that the whole world was a street.

Not getting bored of my own story and/or character is one of the main struggles.

I didn’t mind the quiet stretches. It was like we were trying out the idea of being side by side.

We will continue to innovate and expand the capability of SYNC by integrating even more new technologies that fit our customers’ lifestyles.

My freedom doesn’t end with you, it keeps expanding itself with its little invisible feathers, to grow into a phenomenon of never resting soul.

I never took hallucinogenic drugs because I never wanted my consciousness expanded one unnecessary iota.

We must do what is necessary to expand and develop our economic profile.

Having an actual income can expand your romantic horizons toward the more appealing end of the spectrum.

I will do my best to reduce the price of oil to expand the life span of oil at least for two decades or three decades.

I think it’s a response in our minds to perfection. It’s too bad, people not realizing that their minds expand beyond this world.

Perhaps they are chasing an illusory dream. But if you want to learn, to expand, to be of service, you will find a way.