“Rebuild your family the way you want: not perfect, but free, true. Your children will look at you with respect, not because you were flawless, but because you stayed. Even when you are afraid. Even when no one will believe you. Even when your legs will shake.”

“If you want something to be true badly enough, you can rewrite it that way, in your head. You can even start to believe it.”

“You have to keep your reflexes so that when you want it — it’s there. When you want to move — you are moving. And when you move, you are determined to move! Not accepting even one inch less than 100 percent of your honest feelings. Not anything less than that. So that is the type of thing you have to train yourself into. To become one with your feelings so that, when you think — it is.”

“When I get free, I believe I'll show you your spine. I'll hand it to you so casually, politely even, as if expecting you to remark upon it.”

“There are moments in your life that, when you look back at them, you realize were perfect.”

“This is a sturdy little cop thriller, and even when it stretches the bounds of plausibility, you go with it, partly because you believe -- almost against your better judgment -- in what the characters are doing.”

“Some stories stayed with you even when you wanted to forget them.”

“I hate the way, once you start to know someone, care about them, their behavior can distress you, even when it's unreasonable and not your fault, even if you were really trying to be careful, tactful.”

“Some people are your family no matter when you find them, and some people are not, even if you are laid, still wet and crumpled, in their arms.”

“Always do your very best. Even when no one else is looking, you always are. Don't disappoint yourself.”