“Stock your mind. It is your house of treasure and no one in the world can interfere with it.”

“Sit and quiet yourself. Luxuriate in a certain memory and the details will come. Let the images flow. You'll be amazed at what will come out on paper. I'm still learning what it is about the past t...”

“After a full belly all is poetry.”

“Kids all want to look cool, as if knowledge is a great burden, but they're always looking around. They remember.”

“Actually, my mother and Alfie came for three weeks' Christmas vacation and stayed for 21 years. I guess my mother never went back because she was lonely.”

“We never really had any kind of a Christmas. This is one part where my memory fails me completely.”

“She raised a sharp eyebrow at him. "Vlad, no offense, but look at you. If you're not a vampire, you're clearly the most anemic goth I've ever seen."... "We believed you. Because that's what friends...”

“They said her duck recipe and the Chinese music were so dramatic everything else sounded anemic.”

“Its important to be comfortable with uncertainty.”

“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger--but recognize the opportunity.”

“If we don't change the direction we are headed, we will end up where we are going.”

“It took me years to figure out that upset was upset, and tumultuousness was not the same thing as passion. Love isn't drama.”

“I just wanted to tell you that I understand if you go. Its okay if you have to leave us. Its okay if you want to stop fighting.”

“I'd heard of Evergreen Care Center before. Cass and I had always made fun of the stupid ads they ran on TV, featuring some dragged-out woman with a limp perm and big, painted-on circles under her e...”