“My mother refuses to go into the ocean. She respects it, she says, which is basically the same as saying she's afraid.… — Hilary Thayer Hamann Copy Share Image
“I wondered if Kate would harden as my mother had when she was young and her own mother died. Some people exist… — Hilary Thayer Hamann Copy Share Image
“Kate lost a mother," I said, "but I lost a nothing." Kate doesn't feel that way," Jack assured me. But what about… — Hilary Thayer Hamann Copy Share Image
When you lose your parents as a child, you are indoctrinated into a club, you re taken into life's severest confidence. You… — Hilary Thayer Hamann Copy Share Image
“Hell is only loneliness, a place without play for the soul, a place without God. How could there be God in loneliness when God… — Hilary Thayer Hamann Copy Share Image
“Having to talk to people was the one thing, but soliciting conversation was something else. If I acted squirmy or didn't make eye contact,… — Hilary Thayer Hamann Copy Share Image
“I shook my head. I couldn't remember the time before, or the way it used to be. There were things we used to do,… — Hilary Thayer Hamann Copy Share Image
“They were sorting, or classifying. It's easy-anyone dressed funny is the enemy, especially if they reject your supremacy or do not acknowledge school as… — Hilary Thayer Hamann Copy Share Image
“The families of graduating seniors emptied out of cars, sheepish in uncommon splendor, like milling clans at the origin of a parade. There is… — Hilary Thayer Hamann Copy Share Image
And loneliness. I should say something of loneliness. The panic, the sweeping hysteria that comes not when you are without others, but when you… — Hilary Thayer Hamann Copy Share Image
“My mother refuses to go into the ocean. She respects it, she says, which is basically the same as saying she's afraid. I go… — Hilary Thayer Hamann Copy Share Image
“The unusual thing about quiet is that when you seek it, it is almost impossible to achieve. When you strive for quiet, you become… — Hilary Thayer Hamann Copy Share Image
“I liked the idea of marking the place where a life ends as opposed to the place a corpse is buried. And also the… — Hilary Thayer Hamann Copy Share Image
“My hand reaches for his eye. He does not pull away but breathes into my touch. His normal lid drifts closed, and beneath my… — Hilary Thayer Hamann Copy Share Image
“Envy is awful. Unlike jealousy, which comes from the threat of losing what you cherish, envy is a dark desire for things over which… — Hilary Thayer Hamann Copy Share Image
