“we all know he pays hundreds of dollars for his shoes, but we are going to be paying hundreds of dollars for his flip flops~ Dem Convention 2008”

“And so we became who we are: gentle and bookish and ever so slightly confused. It is not a bad way to be, when all is said and done.”

“The conversation progressed, bumper-car style, to a very heated discussion about death and the survival of the soul. It amazes me that we, as a species, can argue so fervently over something that is, when all is said and done, unknowable and unprovable. Nonetheless, we all arrive at conclusions and cleave to our certainties: that there is nothing but the Void; or that we will find ourselves writing an admissions exam at the Pearly Gates.”

“...yes is all you ever need to say to begin a journey.”

“When did "sentimental" become a pejorative barb? I do not at all share the notion that a piece of music, or a poem, or a film that bypasses the brain and aims straight for the heart . . . should automatically be heaped with scorn. I think it is symptomatic of a sad and dangerous impoverishment of spirit.”

“Novels and gardens," she says. "I like to move from plot to plot.”

“A man can see a hundred women, lust for a thousand more, but it is one scent that will open his eyes and turn him to love.”