Quotes from Christina Baker Kline

And so your personality is shaped. You know too much, and this knowledge makes you wary. You grow fearful and mistrustful. The expression of emotion does not come naturally, so you learn to fake it. To pretend. To display an empathy you don't actually feel.

Never bring up a point you don't have an answer for.

We both start laughing - at the absurdity of our shared experience, the relief of recognition. We cling to each other like survivors of a shipwreck, astonished that neither of us drowned.

And even if she loses the charms, she thinks, they'll always be a part of her. The things that matter stay with you, seep into your skin.

Overhead, several bare bulbs glow like tiny moons.

In American History they've been studying how the United States was founded on indentured servitude. The teacher, Mr. Reed, said that in the seventeenth century nearly two-thirds of English settlers came over that way, selling years of their freedom for the promise of an eventual better life. Most of them were under the age of twenty-one.

Vivian has come back to the idea that the people who matter in our lives stay with us, haunting our most ordinary moments. They're with us in the grocery store, as we turn a corner, chat with a friend. They rise up through the pavement; we absorb them through our soles. Vivian

I can't imagine why you didn't memorize this route on the

I am learning to pretend, to smile and nod, to display

I feel myself retreating to someplace deep inside. It is a pitiful kind of childhood, to know that no one loves you or is taking care of you, to always be on the outside looking in.

Now Molly takes the knife and pokes it through the tape of the box Vivian has chosen: 1929–1930. Vivian, sitting on a wooden chest, waits patiently. After opening the flaps, Molly lifts out a mustard-colored coat, and Vivian scowls. "Mercy sake," she says. "I can't believe I saved that coat. I always hated it.

My da used to say it's good to test your limits now and then, learn what the body is capable of, what you can endure.

What's your natural color, if you don't mind my asking?" "I don't mind," Molly says. "It's dark brown." "Well, my natural color is red." It takes Molly a moment to realize she's making a little joke about being gray. "I like what you've done with it," she parries. "It suits you.

so alone was almost spiritual—but something in Abby's voice makes her pause. "You might have a better idea," she says. "But you two were 'best friends,'" Abby says mockingly. She taps ash from her cigarette into a chipped teacup on the table. Kathryn looks at her. "I thought so." She swallows hard. "But

Ever since I was a little girl I had wanted to be

In that moment I was aware of life pulsing all around me, indifferent to me. I was just a tiny part of a vast living, breathing ecosystem. I wasn't at the center of anything

What do you choose to take with you? What did you leave behind? What insights did you gain?

he doesn't approve but will deal with it later, "is that what they're doing? Asking for handouts?" "They just want to be treated fairly," a kid in the back says. "But what does that mean? And where does it end?" another kid asks. As others join the conversation, Megan turns in her seat and squints at Molly, as if noticing her for the first time. "An Indian, huh. That's cool," she whispers. "Like Molly Molasses, right?

Las cosas que importan se quedan contigo, se filtran en tu piel.

Irish lace, hanging in the windows, filters the afternoon light, softening the lines on her face.

Eighty-two years later, the sound of her crying still haunts me. If only I had paid closer attention to why she was crying instead of simply trying to quiet her. If only I had paid closer attention.

about Minnesota he tells me all about it—how it became a state just over seventy years ago and is now the twelfth largest in the United States. How its name comes from a Dakota Indian word for "cloudy water." How it contains thousands of lakes, filled with fish of all kinds—walleye, for one thing, catfish, largemouth bass, rainbow trout, perch, and pike. The Mississippi River starts in Minnesota, did I know that?

There's sugar beets and sweet corn and green peas. And those low buildings way over there? Turkey farms. Minnesota is the biggest producer of turkeys in the country. There'd be no Thanksgiving without Minnesota, that's for darn sure. And don't get me started on hunting. We've got pheasants, quail, grouse, whitetail deer, you name it. It's a hunter's paradise.

Only the good Lord knows what's going to happen, and He ain't telling.