"When you started thinking it was easy, you were forgetting what it cost." Astrid, White Oleander

More from Janet Fitch

• Always learn poems by heart. They have to become the marrow in your bones. Like fluoride in the water, they'll make your soul impervious to the world's soft decay. Ingrid, White Oleander
• "How vast was a human being's capacity for suffering. The only thing you could do was stand in awe of it. It wasn't a question of survival at all. It was the fullness of it, how much could you hold, how much could you care." Astrid, White Oleander