01UndatedPeople have to snatch at happiness when they can, in this world. It is always easier to lose than to find...Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
02UndatedI've come to think that's what heaven is - a place in the memory of others where our best selves live on." ,Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
03UndatedBefore we leave the gravesite, Mary sings Mother's favorite gospel hymn ...Mary's lovely voice rises and lingers in the air, and by the end of the song most of us are crying. I am too, though I still don't know what those stars are meant to represent. My mistake, I suppose, is in thinking they should mean something.Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
04UndatedSomething inexorable seeds itself in the place of your origin. You can never escape the bonds of family history, no matter how far you travel.Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
05UndatedIt's painful to hold out hope for the things that once brought you joy. You have to find ways to make yourself forget.Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
07UndatedI remember her words to me when I left school: Your mind will be your comfort. It is, sometimes. And sometimes it isn't.Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
10UndatedI learned long ago that loss is not only probable but inevitable. I know what it means to lose everything, to let go of one life and find another. And now I feel, with a strange, deep certainty, that it must be my lot in life to be taught that lesson over and over again.Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
11UndatedI ... am left with the lingering feeling that the places we go in our minds to find comfort have little to do with where our bodies go.Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
12UndatedThe smallest things get to her. It's as if she assumes everything will go right, and when it doesn't -- which, of course, is pretty often -- she is surprised and affronted.Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
13UndatedThe older I get, the more I believe that the greatest kindness is acceptance.Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
14UndatedSo is it just human nature to believe that things happen for a reason — to find some shred of meaning even in the worst experiences?" Molly asks when Vivian reads some of these stories aloud."It certainly helps," Vivian says.Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
15UndatedI think about all the ways I’ve been perceived by others over the years: as a burden, a dutiful daughter, a girlfriend, a spiteful wretch, an invaChristina Baker Kline / quote ↗
17UndatedShe is so white-hot furious she can barely see. She stokes the fire of her hatred, feeding it tidbits about bigoted Dina and spineless mushmouth Ralph, because she knows that just beyond the rage is a sorrow so enervating it could render her immobile. She needs to keep moving, flickering around the room. She needs o fill her bags and get the hell out of here.Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
18UndatedTo get it all done I have to dim my brain, turn it down by notches like the flat-turn knob on a gas lantern, leaving only a nub of flame.Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
19UndatedShe has never tried to find out what happened to her family — her mother or her relatives in Ireland. But over and over, Molly begins to understand as she listens to the tapes, Vivian has come back to the idea that the people who matter in our lives stay with us, haunting our most ordinary moments. They're with us in the grocery store, as we turn a corner, chat with a friend. They rise up through the pavement; we absorb them through our soles.Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
20UndatedDo our natures dictate the choices we make, I wonder, or do we choose to live a certain way because of circumstances beyond our control?Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
21UndatedYou can live for a long time inside the shell you were born in. But one day it'll become too small.""Then what?" I ask."Well, then you'll have to find a larger shell to live in."I consider this for a moment. "What if it's too small but you still want to live there?"She sighs. "Gracious, child, what a question. I suppose you'll either have to be brave and find a new home or you'll have to live inside a broken shell.Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
24UndatedMolly learned long ago that a lot of the heartbreak and betrayal that other people fear their entire lives, she has already faced. Father dead. Mother off the deep end. Shuttled around and rejected time and time again. And still she breathes and sleeps and grows taller. She wakes up every morning and puts on clothes. So when she says it's okay, what she means is that she knows she can survive just about anything.Christina Baker Kline / quote ↗
