What is the point of being a writer if I have to say words about the words I’ve already written? Do painters have to draw about their paintings?

unbecoming.

The initial buzz has worn off, but sometimes we’re sky blue again. It’s not a permanent state anymore; it comes in fleeting moments. It happens when we make love, steal a kiss in the kitchen, catch each other’s eyes when the kids do something amazing. Mostly, though, we’re separate colors. This is a beautiful thing, because we can really see each

Our sons and daughters are still being shamed out of their full humanity before they even get dressed in the morning.

Brave is not asking the crowd what is brave. Brave is deciding for oneself.

That better way is the unseen order inside us. It is the vision we carry in our imagination about a truer, more beautiful world—one in which all children have enough to eat and we no longer kill each other and mothers do not have to cross deserts with their babies on their backs.

A broken family is a family in which any member must break herself into pieces to fit in. A whole family is one in which each member can bring her full self to the table knowing that she will always be both held and free.

It takes special bravery to honor yourself when the crowd is pressuring you not to.

there is no such thing as other people’s children.