“We were afraid of so many things: Of our children, who lived in their own world of casually lurid pleasures, zombies and cartoon killers and thuggish music. Of our neighbors, who were buying gold and ammunition and great quantities of… — Jean Thompson Copy Share Image
“Head full of beer, fists jammed into his empty pockets, halos of blur around the parking lot lights, yup, one more wasted evening, and… — Jean Thompson Copy Share Image
“Maybe getting to know a child wasn't entirely unlike meditation. You kept going at it from all different angles, and once in a while… — Jean Thompson Copy Share Image
“After all, your head only had so much room in it. No surprise if it overflowed once in a while with little bits of… — Jean Thompson Copy Share Image
“The danger of sending your children to college was that they would be contaminated by subversive forces, bad influences and bawdy women." Rolled with… — Jean Thompson Copy Share Image
“Nobody knows what to do when there’s a tragedy. Nobody practices for it.” — Jean Thompson Copy Share Image
“She'd permed her hair to within an inch of its life. When she moved her head, the mass of hair followed along behind her… — Jean Thompson Copy Share Image
“Did poverty in itself lead to moral failings, such as crime? Was "goodness" something that could be objectified and measured? Did society benefit directly… — Jean Thompson Copy Share Image
“What a lopsided stumpy mess people made of a family tree these days. The last thing any of them needed was some new little… — Jean Thompson Copy Share Image
“You wanted to believe that getting older, growing up, would change everything, transform you into the amazing person you were meant to be. But… — Jean Thompson Copy Share Image
“He was beginning to see how having a teenager might be the equivalent of having a bad class in permanent session.” — Jean Thompson Copy Share Image
“She had a heart like a Twinkie, full of oversweet goo, yes, a real junk-food heart.” — Jean Thompson Copy Share Image
“We were afraid of so many things: Of our children, who lived in their own world of casually lurid pleasures, zombies and cartoon killers… — Jean Thompson Copy Share Image
“Somehow, television made behavior that you would go out of your way to avoid in real life into something fascinating.” — Jean Thompson Copy Share Image
“Conner thought he understood how pride could back up in somebody, get turned around and come out as meanness. But that didn’t make it… — Jean Thompson Copy Share Image
