“Was there anything quite so painful, so fraught with the possibilities of hurt, as gift giving within a family?”

“Soon would come the night in which there was no more work not the work of the hands, nor the work of the mind, nor the work of the heart.”

“Still, for all that, her life had lacked passion. The demons had never come for her.”

“I think good conversation is really the best form of sex.”

“Were archaeologists really such a sex-starved lot as all that? Did pigs really sweat?”

“Education teaches children to lose interest in what matters most to them.”

“Just because I'm not forever by your side doesn't mean that's not precisely where I want to be.”

“A marriage takes work. You have to constantly put energy into it to keep it from falling apart. Going nowhere takes energy. Stability isn't what you get when you do nothing. It's what you can hope ...”

“Here's another poem,like all others before and after,dedicated to you.There isn't anything left to be saidbut I will spend my lifetrying to put you into words.You who is every goodness,every optimi...”

“Rights and duties, sounded more entertaining than duties and rights.”

“And you know once a man has fished, or watched the thrushes hovering in flocks over the village in the bright, cool, autumn days, he can never really be a townsman, and to the day of his death he w...”

“The truth is, there is good and bad in everybody, in every nation, in every race, and in every religion. To hear someone say that all the people that belong to a certain country, race, or religion ...”

“Everybody's damaged by something.”

“Shes wild, unpredictable and dangerous as hell. Not just to my sanity, but to my health. Shes the kind of girl you know youll want forever with and forever will still not be enough. But shes not th...”

“Dont fall in love with me, She whispered harshly, a sob catching in her throat. I know you probably think Im egotistical saying this, but I need your promise that you wont do that. If you want to s...”