Quotes from Laura Wiess

I don't know how you say good-bye to whom and what you love. I don't know a painless way to do it, don't know the words to capture a heart so full and a longing so intense.

Sometimes the hardest people to love are the ones who need it the most.

That's what innocence is, you know. A blissful oblivion of what's coming, of what you'll lose and what you'll gain, and what kind of person you'll grow up to be.

Time is not your friend. It doesn't care if you live fast or die slow, if you are or if you aren't. It was here before you arrived and it will go on after you leave. Time doesn't care who wins or who loses, if your life span is full or empty, honorable or shameful. Time is indifferent. It simply doesn't give a shit.

See, guys freak out. They hit critical mass and blast nuclear, white-hot anger out over the world like walking flamethrowers. But girls freak in. They absorb the pain and bitterness and keep right on sponging it up until they drown.

Where is home? Home is where the heart can laugh without shyness. Home is where the heart's tears can dry at their own pace.

Ignorance of the outcome doesn't exempt you from the consequences.

The ache starts in my chest and spreads through my veins. The abuse I can handle; it's the happiness that cripples.

All you really have...is now.

We wait to be rescued, but for whatever reason, no one comes. We figure that if no one protects us then we must not be worth protecting so we become prey and are easily picked off. Our wounded, kicked-puppy gazes attract sly predators and we sell ourselves for clearance sale prices, mistaking screwing for caring.

How can you make someone love you when they won't? How long are you supposed to keep trying?

A victim soul is a pious individual chosen to absorb the pain and suffering of others.

It's just that instead of erupting and annihilating our tormentors, we destroy ourselves instead.

What's the point of obsessing over cholesterol or bike helmets or even cigarettes when the biggest threats to our children are being released back into society every day? Yes, maybe 'some' of them have reformed, but what about the ones who haven't? Doesn't anyone realize that one 'touch', one 'time' will destroy a child's life ten times faster than a pack-a-day habit?

We mutinied quietly, using every lesson we'd been taught by every person who'd ever used us for their own benefit.

There are worse things in life to be than fat, and one of them is ignorant. Another is prejudiced. Another is deliberately cruel.

Yeah, I know I've changed. Nothing gets to me anymore. Well, okay, except for stuff in the past. Back then I was all innocent and trusting and didn't know anything. Now I know plenty and you can't fucking touch me.

Tomorrow belongs to betrayal. Today is mine and I don't want to waste it being afraid.

How about giving your old man a break here, huh, Chirp? Chirp is dead, I hear myself say and watch the flat words destroy his pleasure. You killed her, and now you have to deal with me because I'm what's left.

Hate the behavior, not the individual.

Meredith's a big girl. She knows how babies are made, don't you, Mer? I nod, numb and weary. 'Course I do. Same guy that taught you taught me.

We're not afraid of the dark. Our nightmares were born on sultry, summer afternoons.

Maybe it's true that shared trauma brings people closer together-a common hardship, a battle to survive-because when times are quiet people relax and go their own separate ways. They're lulled into believing they've got everything under control and don't need what they did before.

And I don't want to hurt anymore. I want to be someone who makes it through