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When she fucked up all those years ago, just a little girl terrified into paralysis, she fell onto the enigma of herself.

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The world," he said, "is not a wish-granting factory," and then he broke down, just for one moment, his sob roaring impotent like a clap of thunder un...more

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The longer I do my job ... the more I realize that humans lack good mirrors. It's so hard for anyone to show us how we look, and so hard for us to sho...more

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It lit up like a Christmas Tree Hazel Grace...

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...the kind of weather that reminds you after a long winter that while the world wasn't built for humans, we were built for the world.

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The marks humans leave are too often scars. You build a hideous minimall or start a coup or try to become a rockstar and you think, "They'll remember ...more

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Here's the thing about Hazel: Almost everyone is obsessed with leaving a mark upon the world. Bequeathing a legacy. Outlasting death. We all want to b...more

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That's the thing about pain. It demands to be felt...

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Fights were recounted, battles won amid wars sure to be lost; hope was clung to; families were both celebrated and denounced; it was agreed that frien...more

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That’s the thing about pain, it demands to be felt.

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Well to be fair, I said, I mean she probably can't handle it. Neither can you, but she doesn't have to handle it. And you do.

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and I told myself -- as I've told myself before -- that the body shuts down then the pain gets too bad, that consciousness is temporary, that this wil...more

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Even then, it hurt. The pain was always there, pulling me inside of myself, demanding to be felt. It always felt like I was waking up from the pain wh...more

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If you want the rainbow, you have to deal with the rain.

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... because Mr. Applebaum, who is ostensibly teaching us precalculus but is mostly teaching me that pain and suffering must be endured stoically, says...more