“Next year, the year after that, and even the year after that, will all be good. Because I’ll be thinking of you. I’ll be grateful that you were born into this world. I’ll be grateful that the person I love is still breathing.”

“Suddenly I wonder, ‘Where is the girl that I was last year? Two years ago? What would she think of me now?”

“I was looking for a love unlike my parents’ love or my sister’s love or the love on a foreign kitchen floor. I wanted my own kitchen to keep clean and full of bread and milk and hot sauce and a big clean empty sink where I could wash my dishes. I wanted to forgive my mother and father for their misery and find myself a light man who lived buoyantly and to be both his light and his dark, serious baby.”