A risk is a risk because it's avoidable.

— Erica Bauermeister

Caroline had felt more comfortable thinking of beauty as something separate from her, like a scarf or a coat you could check before going into a show. She wondered now, however, if she had treated more things as a part of herself rather than an accessory, perhaps everything would have turned out differently.

— Erica Bauermeister

Each person's heart breaks in its a own way. Every cure will be different, but there are some things we all need. Before anything else, we need to feel safe.

— Erica Bauermeister

I am starting to think that maybe memories are like this dessert. I eat it, and it becomes a part of me, whether I remember it later or not.

— Erica Bauermeister

Isabelle had always thought of her mind as a garden, a magical place to play as a child, when the grown-ups were having conversations, and she was expected to listen politely-- and even, although she hated to admit this, later with Edward, her husband, when listening to the particularities of his carpet salesmanship wore her thin. Every year the garden grew larger, the paths longer and more complicated. Meadows of memories. Of course, her mental garden hadn't always been well tended. There were the years when the children were young, fast-moving periods when life flew by without time for the roots of deep reflection, and yet she knew memories were created whether one pondered them or not. She had always considered that one of the luxuries of growing older would be the chance to wander through the garden that had grown while she wasn't looking. She would sit on a bench and let her mind take every path, tend every moment she hadn't paid attention to, appreciate the juxtaposition of the one memory against another.

— Erica Bauermeister

It was interesting. Isabelle thought, the children that chose you. Some come through your body; others came in cars in the middle of the night.

— Erica Bauermeister

I've been wondering," Isabelle commented reflectively over dessert, "if it is foolish to make new memories when you know you are going to lose them.

— Erica Bauermeister

I walked across a bridge that doesn't exist. And after that, being scared just didn't seem so important anymore.

— Erica Bauermeister

Jack's marketing books had been a part of her life for so long that she had ceased to register their presence, simply moving them from the couch to the coffee table, from the bed to the nightstand. How to Sell Everything to Anybody. Eight Great Habits of CEOs. They all seemed to involve numbers, as if you could simply count yourself to riches, like following sheep to sleep.

— Erica Bauermeister

Life is beautiful. Some people just remind you of that more than others.

— Erica Bauermeister