To understand history, ' Chacko said, 'we have to go inside and listen to what they're saying. And look at the books and the pictures on the wall. And smell the smells.

That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.

If you're happy in a dream, does that count?

This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt.

Flat muscled and honey coloured. Sea secrets in his eyes. A silver raindrop in his ear.

When she listened to songs that she loved on the radio, something stirred inside her. A liquid ache spread under her skin, and she walked out of the world like a witch.

His gratitude widened his smile and bent his back.

He could do only one thing at a time. If he held her, he couldn't kiss her. If he kissed her, he couldn't see her. If he saw her, he couldn't feel her.

Heaven opened and the water hammered down, reviving the reluctant old well, greenmossing the pigless pigsty, carpet bombing still, tea-colored puddles the way memory bombs still, tea-colored minds.

Her collarbones like wings that spread from the base of her throat to the ends of her shoulders. A bird held down by skin.

How history negotiates its terms and collects its dues from those who break its laws.

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace.

If you don’t see yourself as a winner, then you cannot perform as a winner.

I only accept your mistakes and flaws to the degree that I accept my own.

Maybe this was now normal for Olivier. Maybe every now and then he simply wept. Not in pain or sadness. The tears were just overwhelming memories, rendered into water, seeping out.

I had a dream about you. We were married and I walked into the room to see you in my new black dress and high heels and I said "That's not what I meant when I said I bought them for you".

I use L'Oréal True Match as my foundation, Laura Mercier as my concealer, Maybelline Great Lash as my mascara, and Benefit blush and that's it. I keep it pretty simple.

We make them [kids] earn the stuff they want. They're not going to play with their iPad today unless they do their chores.

Magic is easy if you put your heart into it.

My masculinity isn't hinged on whether or not I knit.

There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.