Don't turn over the rocks if you don't want to see the pale... - Janet Fitch, White Oleander

"Always learn poems by heart. They have to become the marrow in your bones. Like fluoride in the water, they'll make your soul impervious to the world's soft decay."

"And if there is no god?You act as if there is, and it's the same thing."

"Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. Never expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand you, someone to fill that space. If you expect to find people who will understand you, you will grow murderous with disappointment."

"What can I say about life? Do I praise it for letting you live, or damn it for allowing the rest?"

"I took the volume to a table, opened its soft, ivory pages... and fell into it as into a pool during dry season."