“I have been a believer in the magic of language since, at a very early age, I discovered that some words got me into trouble and others got me out. ”

“The child, screaming for refuge, senses how feeble a shelter the twig hut of grown-up awareness is. They claim strength, these parents, and complete sanctuary. The weeping earth itself knows how de...”

“I knew what he felt. The huge buoyant air sack of love that filled his body had just exploded and the collapse was devastating.”

“Nudity and explicit sex are far more easily available now than are clear images of death. The quasi-violence of movies and television dwells on the lively acts of killing flying kicks, roaring wea...”

“I know that some of the finest writing I've ever read has been sports writing, whatever the topic was, whatever the sport they were writing about. It seems to be an area where people are allowed a ...”

“'The Iliad' includes some snappy sports reporting, and writers ever since have been probing athletes for signifiers, for metaphor amped by grit under pressure.”

“We tilt our heads back and open wide. The snow drifts into our zombie mouths crawling with grease and curses and tobacco flakes and cavities and boyfriend/girlfriend juice, the stain of lies. For o...”

“The teachers complain that the students today are all lazy, ignorant, and stupid. But the truth is that you're smarter than they are. You're not even old enough to drive and you already know that n...”

“I told her about school and how I sat on a wall there and felt stories and words move through me ...”

“Learn to drive?""Never," said Quentin. "My mission in life is to be a passenger.”

“There were some low moments out there on the road tonightabandonment and whats the point?but then I pulled in a radio station from Albuquerque playing historical rap and breakdance circa 1982. Kurt...”

“The people of God are the driving force of every nation”

“I love you butdon't know what todo.”

“It's like I'm reading a book, andit's a book I deeply love, but I'mreading it slowly now so the wordsare really far apart and the spacesbetween the words are almostinfinite. I can still feel you an...”

“The past is just a story we tell ourselves.”