I wanted to be the kind of woman people didn’t leave.

Jeremy: Why are they sitting next to a bank of candles? Why is their table in the middle and everyone else’s around the edges?

Jo: Have you never been to a restaurant where you are the main character?

my only job now, in all the world, is to not destroy my kids, and in turn, teach them not to destroy others

I wish I had spoken when it mattered

Three years ago Daria described the fall of the Soviet Union to me. She said, Nastya, one day the light went out and the spirits came back. And we returned to the forest.

She had the terrible sinking feeling that whatever was going wrong right now, it was her fault somehow: that she hadn’t been smart enough or good enough.