“She inhaled deep breaths filled with salty air and watched the moon cast streaks across the rippling river, unable to determine in which direction it flowed or where it went, but suddenly curious about it for the first time.”

“This time he just inhaled, deep and luxurious. The inhale was to fill up on her scent, she knew. The exhale was her name, just that, warm and moist against her skin.”

“She was parting from these Wilcoxes for the second time. Paul and his mother, ripple and great wave, had flowed into her life and ebbed out of it forever. The ripple had left no traces behind: the wave had strewn at her feet fragments torn from the unknown. A curious seeker, she stood for a while at the verge of the sea that tells so little, but tells a little, and watched the outgoing of this last tremendous tide.”

“By the time a person has achieved years adequate for choosing a direction, the die is cast and the moment has long since passed which determined the future.”

“Time is like the Mississippi River. It only flows in one direction. You can never go back.”

“Knowledge was not meant to be locked behind doors. It breathes best in the open air where all men can inhale its essence.”