“What is heaven," he asked, staring into my eyes, "but freedom, and beauty, and comfort?" "And salvation," I added. "Yes, of course"-he smiled-"but what is heaven alone? It is a dream for these pitiful creatures blundering through their common lives, eager to see what lies in the world beyond in the hopes that it may be better than what they have here.”

“Not one person in this world believes that they are truly good enough as they are: good enough to be admired, to be respected, to be loved. Only I am willing to admit this.”

“Envy is a dangerous sin. To envy someone you love is to kill a part of yourself”

“Did he really want to know? That at any given moment I see everyday life as only _this big_, the space between my finger and thumb. The rest of my mind is occupied with five, a dozen, three dozen other potential lives, each representing some opportunity never taken or currently within reach. Without those worlds of possibility, my life immediately begins to seem boring and drab. I'm thirty-three years old, always broke, and merely _existing_ in what, without having been sealed by formal wedding vows, had become a traditional marriage. I had no blues to lament, not really. My only drama was in my daydreams. They reminded me that any day, at any moment, I could change everything, and while many of those alternate lives featured James at my side--the truth was that some of them did not.”

“Way back when I was four, I became increasingly sickly and spiritless. My mother took me to the doctor, who poked and prodded and deliberated. In the end, he pronounced, "She's depressed." Depressed at four years old. Why? No one had an answer....I have long evaded the real reasons for my discontentment. I still can't tell what they are, precisely, but I feel their presence most acutely in moments like this one with my grandmother, imagining a day in a big-box store that had replaced an old farm.”

“I am an alien. i am not of this world, nor do I call it "home". My desires are not for earthly things that will fade, corrode or burn. I set my heart and mind on things above. My faith and hope are in God alone and I eagerly await His return for me, because you see, "I'm a citizen of heaven...”

“Now, here. The Warlord sent a likeness of himself.” Sally frowned, but leaned in for a good long stare. “He looks like a dirty fingerprint.” “Of course he doesn’t,” replied her father, squinting at the portrait. “You can see his eyes, right there.” “I thought those were his nostrils.” “Well, you’re not going to be picky, are you? At least he has a face.” “Yes,” Sally replied dryly. “What a miracle.”