They were happy to help someone, to succeed at something, even if they weren't to benefit.

I felt as if I were riding a pendulum. Just as I would swing into the abyss of hopelessness, the pendulum would swing back with some small goodness.

Sometimes there is such beauty in awkwardness.

You stand for what is right, Lina, without the expectation of gratitude or reward.

Good men are often more practical than pretty " said Mother. "Andrius just happens to be both.

...we're dealing with two devils who both want to rule hell.

Mother, why are you breaking your beautiful things?' I asked...'Because I love them so much.

But how can they just decide that we're animals? They don't even know us, " I said."We know us, " said Mother. "They're wrong. And don't ever allow them to convince you otherwise. Do you understand?

A guilty conscience is not worth extra food.

Well, I don't know, Lina. But let's just say I've met a lot of dead people.

He threw his burning cigarette onto our clean living room floor and ground it into the wood with his boot.We were about to become cigarettes.

Attention is the beginning of devotion.

Negative words have a way of permeating our system and making themselves comfortable in our sub-conscious.

GRIEF TAUGHT ME TO LIVE NUMB. Death takes more than just the one life. It thieves tiny particles from the ones left behind until you feel only half alive.

If uncertain, it's best to pass by a possibly good dog than risk injury.

As an Italian-American, I have a special responsibility to be sensitive to ethnic stereotypes.

Oppression does not know the meaning of provincial boundaries. Aren't our energies better spent fighting the common enemy instead of each other?

I have a big fear of change, or negative change, anyway. I'm basically the same person I was when I won 'Idol,' or when I was 10.

If evolution works, why are monkeys still around?

I like the idea of Wild Infancy, of people who have a deprived background, of starting out wild.

Once you really love a person and, if you want to be in a committed relationship the games need to stop. I mean, you can find some other games to play.