“She also understood there was a hole in her heart where her son should be, that she was a wicked, selfish woman for wishing him back.”

“She was no stripper with a heart of gold, that was for sure. A heart of steel, more like.”

“Its not like I planned it. I never woke up from some rosy dream and said, Okay, world, today Im gonna spaz.”

“We didnt want to admit it then, but we were friends. Best friends.”

“A woman brings so much more to the world than birth, for she can birth discovery, intelligence, invention, art, just as well as any man.”

“Using ones beauty was the only way a smart girl could get by, at least thats how it was back then, though even for a smart girl there were really only three professions. You could be a nurse or a t...”

“I cannot express how lordly and transfigured I felt at that moment. I was a prince of that harbor, a porpoise king - slim among the buoys and the water traffic.”

“This [sand-dollar hunting] had become one of our rituals together, and though she would search for other varieties of shells when I was out of town or unable to see her, she would wait until I appe...”

“Over the drop, a luminous pond lay below them like a pale magic lantern. It was as if the moon had plummeted into the water and smashed open. Engulfed in darkness, with only a scatter of stars abov...”

“If pinpointing God's presence were really that simple, then he supposed the beaches would be more crowded in the mornings. They would be filled with people on their own quests, instead of people jo...”

“You have powerful storms in your mind? Visit the silent beaches to calm your storms! You have excessive silence in your mind? Find some powerful storms to awaken your mind!”

“After supper they saw Kaluka to the boardwalk, and then strolled back along the beach to Asbury. The evening sea was a new sensation, for all its color and mellow age was gone, and it seemed the bl...”

“The battle with the bottle is nothing so novel.”

“I've always felt that distant train whistles heard in the dead of night are the universe's way of letting us know the best days are neither ahead nor behind us...they're happening right now, cradle...”

“The whiskey kicked like a mugger.”