Christina Baker Kline

So 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

Something 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

That man would have chipped away at your heart bit by bit until there was nothing left. It may have been bruised, but at least it's whole.

Christina Baker Kline

The older I get, the more I believe that the greatest kindness is acceptance.

Christina Baker Kline

The 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

This is like telling a person who has leapt off a cliff to be careful. I am already in midair.

Christina Baker Kline

This life of ours can feel an awful lot like waiting.

Christina Baker Kline

To 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

When something terrible happens, a lifetime of small events and unremarkable decisions, of unresolved anger, and unexplored fears begins to play itself out in ways you least expect. You've been going along from one day to the next, not realizing that all those disparate words and gestures were adding up to something, a conclusion, you didn't anticipate. And later, when you begin to retrace your steps you see that you will need to reach back further than you could have imagined, beyond words and thoughts and even dreams, perhaps to make sense of what happened.

Christina Baker Kline

You 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

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