“All the travelin I ever done is going around the coffeepot looking for the handle.”

“We face up to awful things because we can't go around them, or forget them. The sooner you say 'Yes, it happened, and there's nothing I can do about it,' the sooner you can get on with your own life. You've got children to bring up. So you've got to get over it. What we have to get over, somehow we do. Even the worst things.”

“It's easier to die if others around you are dying.”

“There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.”

“...all them things I don't know could get you killed if I come to know them”

“You know, the Chinese have forgotten more about sailing than the rest of the world ever knew.”

“The world is a staircase," hissed the accordion maker in the darkness. "Some go up and some come down. We must ascend.”