“It's only at first sight,when the mind's a blank slate,that you get the purest look.So I fold the flap back,and write:Tumbleweeds.”

“We are here to inscribe ourselves on the universe, and it is not inappropriate to remind ourselves of this when blank slates are given us.”

“Without memories to cloud it, the mind perceives with absolute clarity. Each observation stands out in stark relief. In the beginning, when there's not yet a smudge, the slate still blank, there is only the present moment: each vital detail, shocked color, the fall of light. Like film stills. The mind relentlessly open to the world, deeply impressed, even hurt by it: not yet gauzed by memory.”

“You, little blank slate,on which we write our misfortune,learn the lesson for today:you are rare enough to be stolen.”

“We're not blank slates. What we've done, what we've survived all go into us.”

“When they'd first come out in the morning, a single flounder lay flapping and puffing in the breezeway, one sad, swollen eye looking back toward the sea.”