“I wasn't glad that I hadn't died. And I wasn't sad that I hadn't. I wasn't anything.”

“All right, all right," he said, with that gesture I'd come to hate: two open palms facing me and patting the air, as if pushing me away, pushing me down, pushing any tears I might be preparing to c...”

“If you love something, know that it will leave on a day you are far from ready.”

“I thought at times that poetry might be an elegant way of screaming.”

“Like many parents in middle age, he's quick to spot changes in the world, slow to note shifts in his own perspective.”

“For though I was raised Protestant, my true religion is actually civility. Please note that I do not call my faith politeness. Thats part of it, yes, but I say civility because I believe that good ...”

“There is never a right time. Except the time we make right.”

“The life of my people is to remember forever; each head granary is full. The life of your people is to forget: your thing granaries ("museums"), and not yourselves, are full.”

“We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us.”

“The living sinners on deadly ground.”

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

“But one of the worst results of being a slave and being forced to do things is that when there is no one to force you any more you find you have almost lost the power of forcing yourself.”

“The road to success is always under construction”