“I am reminded of a colleague who reiterated "all my homosexual patients are quite sick" - to which I finally replied "so are all my heterosexual patients.”

“Winds shake the leaves and for a moment I smell smoke. I concentrate on the scent, but it vanishes into the aroma of rain and tree bark, the way one life can collapse into another and different people can stir within the same body, like bats thrashing inside a secret hollow.”

“Sin, in the Greek, means missing the mark. An archery term. That’s all it is. That which has kept you from God.”

“All will be well. Seventeen years later, I knew her meaning. You will find the courage to walk through whatever life gives you.”

“Be patient, hand," he said. "I do this for you.”

“Sometimes, dear brother, I know so well what I want. I am quite able to do without God, both in my life and in my painting, but what I cannot do without, unwell as I am, is something greater than myself, which is my life, the power to create.”

“Stars cannot shine without darkness”