“I need to live like that crooked tree--...that knelt down in the hardest windsbut could not be blasted away.”

“A Partial History of My StupidityTraffic was heavy coming off the bridgeand I took the road to the right, the wrong one,and got stuck in the car for hours.Most nights I rushed out into the eveningwithout paying attention to the trees,whose names I didn't know,or the birds, which flew heedlessly on.I couldn't relinquish my desiresor accept them, and so I strolled alonglike a tiger that wanted to spring,but was still afraid of the wildness within.The iron bars seemed invisible to others,but I carried a cage around inside me.I cared too much what other people thoughtand made remarks I shouldn't have made.I was slient when I should have spoken.Forgive me, philosophers,I read the Stoics but never understood them.I felt that I was living the wrong life,spiritually speaking,while halfway around the worldthousands of people were being slaughtered,some of them by my countrymen.So I walked on--distracted, lost in thought--and forgot to attend to those who sufferedfar away, nearby.Forgive me, faith, for never having any.I did not believe in God,who eluded me.”

“Works of art imitate and provoke other works of art, the process is the source of art itself.”

“She slipped Glenn into her bed and then her face hung over Glenn's for one quiet moment, like a moon."Meera doe branagh, Glennora Morgan."The strange words drifted down from her mother's lips, whispered as light as falling snow."What does it mean, Mommy?"Fingertips grazed Glenn's cheek. "It means I love you. It means I'll always love you." She kissed Glenn softly on the forehead, then backed away. "No matter what."She stepped into the bright hallway and closed the door.When Glenn woke the next morning, her mother was gone”

“Ripe strawberries hung from the little plants, row after row. They gleamed like baubles, bright and red among the leaves, weighing down their stalks.”

“Humans need simple answers for complex problems.”

“She had not understood what he said, but she took him in with a glance that made Will feel like he had just had one of those full-body MRI scans, the kind that find more things wrong with you than you ever could have imagined.”