I'm not a slash-and-burn kind, and I'm also not a posterity kind. They just kind of exist on my hard drive. It's like walking down the street - what you leave behind is still there, even if you never go back and revisit it. Alice Sebold More Quotes by Alice Sebold More Quotes From Alice Sebold How to Commit the Perfect Murder" was an old game in heaven. I always chose the icicle: the weapon melts away. Alice Sebold games perfect heaven How could it be that you could love someone so much and keep it secret from yourself as you woke daily so far from home? Alice Sebold love-someone secret home Out loud I said I had two children. Silently I said three. I always felt like apologizing to her for that. Alice Sebold three two children I missed her then but it was an odd sort of missing because by then, I knew the meaning of forever. Alice Sebold missing-someone missing forever To transform experience and thought into language and narrative - that is beautiful even if that beauty is in brokenness. Alice Sebold narrative language beautiful Hey, Ocean Eyes,” my father said. “Where’d you go on us? Alice Sebold ocean eye father All you have to do is desire it, and if you desire it enough and understand why -- really know -- it will come. Alice Sebold enough knows desire The shadow of years was not as big on his small body. He knew I was away . But when people left they always came back. Alice Sebold shadow people years Sometimes Holly seemed like she wasn't paying attention, and other times she was gone when I went looking for her. That was when she went to a part of heaven we didn't share. I missed her then, but it was and odd sort of missing because by then I knew the meaning of forever. I could not have what I wanted most: Mr. Harvey dead and me living. Heaven wasn't perfect. But I came to believe that if I watched closely, and desired, I might change the lives of those I loved on Earth. Alice Sebold perfect forever believe She sat in her room on the couch my parents had given up on and worked on hardening herself. Take deep breaths and hold them. Try to stay still for longer and longer periods of time. Make yourself small and like a stone. Curl the edges of yourself up and fold them under where no one can see. ~pg 29, Susie's sister Lindsey dealing with grief. Alice Sebold grief parent trying He tunneled into stories where weak men changed into strong half-animals or used eye beams or magic hammers to power through steel or climb up the sides of skyscrapers. He was the Hulk when angry and Spidey the rest of the time. When he felt his heart hurt he turned into something stronger than a little boy, and he grew up this way. A heart that flashed from heart to stone, heart to stone. As I watched I thought of what Grandma Lynn liked to say when Lindsey and I rolled our eyes or grimaced behind her back. "Watch out what faces you make. You'll freeze that way. Alice Sebold grandma strong hurt Last night it had been my father who had finally said it: "She’s never coming home." A clear and easy piece of truth that everyone who had ever known me had accepted. But he needed to say it, and she needed to hear him say it. Alice Sebold home night father We have this desire for everything to be explained to us. But if you go through your daily actions, very little ends up having a written-down explanation for why things happen, or why people do specific things. So it made sense to me to reflect the human condition that not every action has an explanation. We act, and then later maybe come to an understanding about it, or maybe not. Alice Sebold understanding desire people I had always been in love with him. I counted the lashes of each closed eye. He had been my almost, my might have been, and I did not want to leave him Alice Sebold happy-love eye want I dont think ignorance is a way that you gain distance on something. Alice Sebold distance ignorance thinking Each time I told my story, I lost a bit, the smallest drop of pain. Alice Sebold bones pain stories Like a medical procedure,' Ruth said. 'Intricate surgery is needed to patch up the planet. Alice Sebold patch-up ruth medical What I think was hardest for me to realize was that he had tried each time to stop himself. He had killed animals, taking lesser lives to keep from killing a child Alice Sebold animal children thinking Life is a perpetual yesterday for us. Alice Sebold perpetual life-is yesterday I loved the way the burned-out flashcubes of the Kodak Instamatic marked a moment that had passed, one that would now be gone forever except for a picture. Alice Sebold gone forever way
