"he says that you and margaret have both bad and good influences on each other. one of those, i guess, has got to win out, maybe the good."

- howard norman, the bird artist

"so, now what?" the girl is asking, feeling her eyes straight on the road and on the tunnel of light carving out of the dark ahead as they go.

"so now it's different. like you. first thing i saw, you were sweet and intelligent. not every blonde has got brains, you know. it's your personality i like. not sex. you're no raving tearing beauty."

he doesn't know that last could hurt a little if she let it. but it doesn't because she doesn't.

- sylvia plath

"rock bottom is everything out of focus. it's a failure of vision, a failure to see the world as it is, to see the good in what it is, and only to wonder why the hell things look the way they do and not- and not some other way. as if there were any way that might look right from behind that depressive fog. it's not as if i hadn't tried to make things work with a man who was nothing like noah... and this sad discovery makes me see what a fresh hell i have landed in. no man is going to solve my problems, no one can rescue me... years ago, many many moons ago, back in high school or maybe even earlier, there was a chance that solid love might have penetrated the fumes of my mind and made me feel just a little bit all right. but by the time i got to england, it was too late."

- elizabeth wurtzel, prozac nation

"this someone... she meant a lot to you?"
"yes. yeah, she did."
"what happened?"
"i couldn't give her what she wanted?"
"what did she want?"
"to be free."