Jenna Brooks

...avoid _ like the measles _ phony laughter. No, really. If you don__ find it to be funny, don't laugh. More evil and injustice has gotten a foothold in this world because of polite, counterfeit laughter _ a desire to not __ffend_, or to not be __eculiar_ - than anything else.But when you do laugh, let your belly shimmy.

It's all interrelated, these destructive things I do. I latch on to people, like I'm collecting them. I'm always looking for a hero, you know?

Simon leveled the gun at Will again. 'Now,' he said casually, 'someone's gonna die here in the next minute.'On the other side of the two-way mirror, Sammy took aim.'That's exactly right,' she whispered.

I admired so many things about you. Almost everything. But I don__ want to wind up like you. I don__ want to starve to death, all alone on some island inside my own head. Hopeless.

If you have survived an abuser, and you tried to make things right_ If you forgave, and you struggled, and even if the expression of your grief and your anger tumbled out at times in too much rage and too many words_ If you spent years hanging on to the concepts of faith, hope, and love, even after you knew in your heart that those intangibles, upon which life is formed and sustained, would fail in the end_ And especially, if you stood between your children - or anyone - and him, and took the physical, emotional, and spiritual pummeling in their stead, then you are a hero.