“Everybody needs a fort.
You can live without a lot of things in your life, things other people might say you need. But all you really need is a fort. It can be small, but it has to be sturdy. It’s the place you can go when you don’t have anywhere else to go. A place where there won’t be a lot of questions. A place where people won’t be looking at you or making judgments or assumptions about you. A fort is all about protection.” (page 1)
“My mother likes to make speeches. She’s one of those people who believes she can get out ahead of things –bad things, I mean –by preparing everybody in advance, by speaking slowly and carefully about the sadness or confusion or frustration you’re about to feel. It’s almost like she’s trying to put a frame around things, to sort of steer the world in the right direction, or at least have a say in how other people feel. I don’t mind. I know why she does that. Adults need to have a lot of control over what happens.” (page 4)
“…the word accident was not the kind of word you could count on. It wasn’t a word that held its meaning. It changed. It shifted. It could be one thing in relation to one person; it could be something totally different in relation to another person.
Accident was just not a word you could ever trust.” (page 29)
