“I reached down and picked up a baseball bat at my feet and I flung it as hard as it could. It circled and arced high in the air until it slammed against the side of the dining hall with a crack and...”

“Id stumbled upon the inner sanctuary of a woman who loved the world. Loved the faces of people she saw. Loved the way a hand looked when it was relaxed. Loved the way a woman looked when she touche...”

“My mom told me once that Wyatt loved her the way a boy will love his mother, but I loved her the way an artist loves another. Jo taught me what that meant.”

“Look at this one. I picked up a small painting of a man with dark hair and a short, dark beard. He wore a loose shirt, cobalt blue, unbuttoned at the top, showing a prominent, knobby collarbone. He...”

“I worried I would miss it, and I knew, from losing Wyatt, that things happen the moment the soul is released. Wyatt had been there in the school, watching me, making sure I survived. Souls lingerth...”

“Jo told me once that she was an old woman everywhere but in her studio. There Im only myself, shed said. Standing in the middle of masterpieces that only Jo had ever seen and touched, I knew what s...”

“Dont ever let desperation take the seat of inspiration in you! Always live inspired no matter what! For though something might be wrong somewhere, something is always right somewhere! If you have l...”

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with th...”

“On the one hand you had people constantly fighting Hell; on the other, you had people constantly fighting Hell on earth.”

“But I understood, now, that we dont live only for ourselves. Were connected by millions of shared experiences and dreams and nightmares, all tied together with compassion. I learned that even when ...”

“Wyatt told me once that if tenderness were a disease, Id be terminal.”

“We bumped into other silent lines of kids going in the same direction. We looked like we were much younger and our lines were headed to the cafeteria or recess or the carpool line. Or it couldve be...”

“God and government can work together”

“When it comes down to it, government is simply an abandonment of responsibility on the assumption that there are people, other than ourselves, who really know how to manage things. But the governme...”

“In our country let us reject violence and selfishness which could destroy Nigeria unity.”