“The ocean-blue bowl won’t refuse to bruise, won’t hold it back from the gaping earth-wounds.There will still come water, chill wind and happy goosebumps, and in the utmost corners of oaks, leaves laughing.”

“I scratch down happiness, Iwant my ink to do happy dances, to careen across the pages staggeringlike a drunken fellow, giddy on moonshine or sunset.”

“Never say savor when you only mean taste – one is a holding on the tongue and an intoxication and the other is cursory, a sampling, connoting reluctance to bask. Never say a thing you don’t mean.”

“I too was pinched off from a piece of clay, I too modeled by omnipotence and flankedby things too wonderful for me”

“It is something to have gazed on the constellated white, felt it running from the eyes and the pores: the salt of love. It is something to have whispered wild thank-yous in the only ways we know how.”

“Friend who has fired the kingfishers and flamed the dragonflies – they catch your light however they move and beam it out of their eyes.”

“Before I take you into the beating heart of the story, let’s get one thing out of the way. I know from experience that when it comes up later, it will distract you so much that you won’t be able to concentrate on anything else I will tell you. My name is Jubilee Dougal. Take a moment and let it sink in.”