For stubborn souls like Lisette, death was easier than the courage it took to actually change your life.

It looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon.

Sometimes you weren't supposed to share pain. Sometimes it was best just to deal with it alone.

Happiness is a risk. If you’re not a little scared, then you’re not doing it right.

Every life needs a little space. It leaves room for good things to enter it.

Don't let anyone see your vulnerable spots. Once they knew how to hurt you, they would do it again and again.

I needed to stop being what everyone thought I was.

The next morning dawned bright and sweet, like ribbon candy.

She looked like autumn, when leaves turned and fruit ripened.

You can't change where you come from, but you can change where you go from here. Just like a book. If you don't like the ending, you make up a new one.

She was so Southern that she cried tears that came straight from the Mississippi, and she always smelled faintly of cottonwood and peaches.

Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

Anarchy is a state of society where the only government is reason.

Like all good mothers, she always knew the worst was going to happen and was disappointed and relieved when it finally did.

It's more about capturing an idea than about capturing a moment.

Nothing's perfect along the way [in life], and you ride the ups and downs. It's how you come out of those and continue on that I guess really matters.

We can say what we need to say. We can gently, but assertively, speak our mind. We do not need to be judgmental, tactless, blaming or cruel when we speak our truths.

You know that feeling you get when your leg falls asleep? Well, I suddenly had that feeling in my spine. Like termites were chewing through the marrow in my backbone.

You should never assume anything coming from a critical standpoint. You should go into everything assuming you're going to get crushed.

Religion for a long time has come to be static in India. What we want is to make it dynamic. I want it to be brought into the life of everybody.

I laugh at people who say things like 'I'm a good person, I just do bad things.' No, that's not how it works. What you do IS who you are.