“Id like them to appreciate the power of the individualand I dont mean me; I mean the power each person has to make choices and be accountable for himself or herself. Ive noticed that people are qui...”

“I ask for tons of notebooks for my birthday, the ones with college ruled lines, and I carry them with me, pretend they're my friends, and write anything that comes to mind. Something about my stori...”

“We met in a school elevator, and he could tell from the way I spoke that we had some sadness in common.”

“I remember watching those balloons as a little boy, each fall, wondering if someday I, too, would be nothing but a balloon in the sky, soaring towards the sun until I begin to fall slowly back to e...”

“She likes to write messages on balloons and send them to the sky. She takes out a black Magic Marker and she starts writing on the dozen or so balloons, one for each member of our family who died. ...”

“For a long time, I felt like I was destined to inherit a certain kind of life and so I wouldnt let myself think of it for fear of being even cognitively associated with it. But writing about those ...”

“work at our responsibility as parents as if everything in life counted on it, because in fact everything in life does count on it.”

“Happiness [is] only real when shared”

“That's what people do who love you. They put their arms around you and love you when you're not so lovable.”

“But who can remember pain, once its over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.”

“I know what you are learning to endure. There is nothing to be done. Make sure nothing is wasted. Take notes. Remember it all, every insult, every tear. Tattoo it on the inside of your mind. In lif...”

“My mind, I know, I can prove, hovers on hummingbird wings. It hovers and it churns. And when it's operating at full thrust, the churning does not stop. The machines do not rest, the systems rarely ...”

“Maybe that was how I found comfort just then, even with him being so far away. By remembering the flavor of his words.”

“I remember you with my soul clenched in that sadness of mine that you know.”

“Because If you ever think of me in the future I want you to remember me smiling”