“She looks at the swings, and I can see shes imagining what theyd look like if the kids werent there. The guilt of this holds her down momentarily. It appears to be there constantly. Never far away,...”

“Sometimes people are beautiful.Not in looks.Not in what they say.Just in what they are.”

“Maybe everyone can live beyond what they're capable of.”

“Why cant the world hear? I ask myself. Within a few moments I ask it many times. Because it doesnt care, I finally answer, and I know Im right. Its like Ive been chosen. But chosen for what? I ask.”

“As we walk back, it feels like the city is engulfing us. Adrenalin still pours through our veins. Sparks flow through to our fingers. We've still been running in the mornings, but the city's differ...”

“...there would be punishment and pain, and there would be happiness, too. That was writing.”

“... millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”

“There is an hour of the afternoon when the plain is on the verge of saying something. It never says, or perhaps it says it infinitely, or perhaps we do not understand it, or we understand it and it...”

“Once, I took the penny whistle you gave me and discovered a spotby the roaring falls where I could play as loud as I wanted. I lay in the bifurcated trunkof a low-slung birch tree. The sun peeked t...”

“Some experiences are universal. A girl is a girl whether she lives in West Omaha or Sweet Valley. Books are often far more than books.”

“A half-read book is a half-finished love affair.”

“The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,And all the sweet serenity of books”

“Fear has nothing to do with cowardice. A fellow is only yellow when he lets his fear make him quit.”

“I always envied them, the owners of the cars with the white plates who can be seen around Jerusalem. I always wanted to be one of them. We call them U.N., even though U.N. are generally foreign cor...”

“I made a circle with a smile for a mouth on yellow paper, because it was sunshiny and bright.”