“Con l’adolescenza i gesti d’affetto della figlia erano diventati rari – un bacetto sulla guancia, un mezzo abbraccio svogliato – e per questo ancora più preziosi. Era così che andavano le cose, si era detta Mia, ma quanto era dura. Un abbraccio di tanto in tanto, la testa appoggiata per un istante sulla tua spalla, quando la cosa che avresti voluto più di ogni altra era cingerli tra le braccia e tenerli talmente stretti da diventare una cosa sola e inseparabile. Era come allenarti a vivere del solo profumo di una mela quando in realtà avresti voluto divorarla, affondarvi i denti e consumarla fino ai semi, al torsolo, tutto quanto.” ChildrenGrowing UpMotherhood Book:Little Fires Everywhere Source: Little Fires Everywhere
“Succulents would grow anew from a broken-off leaf, pushing roots out into the air, then down into the soil: a piece of its own body, transformed into its child.” ChildrenParentingSucculents Book:Our Missing Hearts Source: Our Missing Hearts
“I stället ställde hon den fråga som flöt under alla de andra frågorna som en djup underjordisk flod. »Var jag önskad?«” ChildrenAbortionParenthoodOnly Child Book:Little Fires Everywhere Source: Little Fires Everywhere
“To a parent, your child wasn't just a person: your child was a *place*, a kind of Narnia, a vast eternal place where the present you were living and the past you remembered and the future you longed for all existed at once. You could see it every time you looked at her: layered in her face was the baby she'd been and the child she'd become and the adult she would grow up to be, and you saw them all simultaneously, like a 3-D image.” LoveChildrenMothers Book:Little Fires Everywhere Source: Little Fires Everywhere
