Quotes from Joshilyn Jackson

She had questions, of course, so I gave her my hands and answered them, interpreting what both of us were saying for Henry as I signed, so that instead of thinking in English or ASL, I thought between them.

I shook my head. Parenthood shouldn't work this way. Fathers shouldn't get to decide if they wanted to father or not, thirteen years in. Fathers who weren't dead should do their damn job.

Our hurts are heavy, and we let them sink. Every day they drift lower, settling in murky places where the light can't reach.

You don't ever let a man say 'My way or nothing' to you. Not even a good man. Not even my son. And you never say 'My way or nothing' to him. You don't take your sweetheart's love and use it on him. You can do that to your mama, but not your sweetheart." I smiled at that.

Most of all Digby deserved a father. I could vet Batman forever if I wanted. I would eventually see past his shiny second-date persona to his flaws, whatever they might be. Maybe he'd turn out to be a bit of a jackass, but there was a righteous jackass in my Birchie's kitchen right now, and he was fixing necessary cocoa for his kid.

The world was dangerous and broken. But people had to feel safe anyway, to get on with the business of living.

I put the cookie in my mouth. I drank the cup, all the while looking at a congregation my son belonged in, knowing that it existed only in this moment. I swallowed, and I felt like I was sharing in a spicy, tart communion, strange and rare. It was a taste of the world as I wanted it to be. Inside the house the drapes twitched. The world as it actually was, present and watching.

I held my ground, because prey retreats, and hunger follows anything that runs.

The roads had been deserted, but there'd been windows all around us, dark and silent, each its own glass eye.

heaven in a gaze, A heaven of heavens, the privilege Of one another's eyes.

Burr had to know I understood what I had done. I knew you couldn't kill only the pieces that needed killing, and leave the pretty parts whole.

Her whole body sang with a sick gladness that this was any child but hers. It was as immediate and involuntary as her heartbeat, and in her next breath, shame crept in. Not Shelby, thank God, thank God, but this girl was someone's.

God gave us crying so other folks could see when we needed help, and help us.

There are gods in Alabama: Jack Daniel's, high school quarterbacks, trucks, big tits, and also Jesus.

I had been born and mostly raised in the South, so I ought to have been able to find a way to reach him. Southern girls are trained from birth up that the way to a man's heart is never through the front door. They may leave a basket of cookies there, and while he's busy picking them up, they're squirming in through a back window.

It's a thing I am, not a thing I do. I can't stop being it.

You can't go around holding the worst thing you ever did in your hand, staring at it. You gotta cook supper, put gas in the car. You gotta plant more zinnias.

The things that happen to me just make me more me.

Sometimes karma takes years to pay a person back, but that day, it had a fast backhand return...

oh that's right, you never lie unless your mouth is open and words are coming out of it

The wold was full of us, the leftovers and the leavers, the bereaved and the broken.

Saying it it loud, she felt every inch of distance between them.

He knows me so well. I don't have to say it. Not any of it. Not yet. There will be time for it later. For now, it is enough. It is enough and it is easy. Easy to walk the last few steps between us. Easy and so beautiful to step into his arms. He kisses me. He kisses me. I kiss him back.

I had spent my whole life hungry for forgiveness. It had not come, so I didn't know firsthand what he was feeling. But I had imagined it, over and over. I'd wanted it so bad. I'd wanted Kai—or anyone, anyone who knew the worst in me—to say that I was still dear, and good, and worthy.