“The good news is you survived. The bad news is you're hurt and no one can heal you but yourself.”

“I brought a knife to the gunfight. I am the knife. I am all blade.”

“YOU NEVER NEED TO APOLOGIZEFOR HOW YOU CHOSE TO SURVIVE”

“We are more than the worst thing that's ever happened to us. All of us need to stop apologizing, for having been to hell and come back breathing.”

“You are on the floor crying,and you have been on the floor crying for days.And that is you being brave.That is you getting through itas best you know how. No one else can decideWhat your tough looks like.”

“I will love you when you are a still day.I will love you when you are a hurricane.”

“But my heart is an old house(the kind my mothergrew up in)hell to heat and cooland faulty in the wiringand though it’s nice to look atI have no businessinviting lovers in.”

“All this timeI drank you like the cure when maybeyou were the poison.”

“My battered heart will always be where the ocean meets the sand, I will break over and overEvery day. That is the best andworst part of me.”

“It’s just so strange.You used to love me,and now you’re a strangerwho happens to know allof my secrets.”

“You told me mornings were the best time to break your own heart. So here I am, smoking your brand of cigarettes for the scent. I wonder if you still sing Beatles songs as you make coffee. You said your mother used to sing them to you when you couldn’t sleep, nineteen years before we met, twenty before you moved your clothes out of our closet while I was at work. By the way, I hate you for leaving all the photographs on the fridge. Taking them down felt like peeling off new scabs, like slapping a sunburn. I spent so many nights carving your body into pillows, I can promise you nothing feels like sleeping with your arm around me and your breath in my ear. Still, it’s comforting to know we sleep under the same moon, even if she’s so much older when she gets to me. I like to imagine she’s seen you sleeping and wants me to know you’re doing well.”