“-though sometimes it seems to mention a man who simply acts like a decent human being gets undue praise”

“GIRL'S STORY #7: THE HARD-TO-PLEASE MOMMAMomma, I got a B, the daughter said.Who got an A? Momma answered.Momma, I showed in the track meet.Who placed? Momma answered.Momma, I placed in the track meet.Who won? Momma answered.The daughter was chosen Homecoming Queen, the daughter ran all the way home, Momma, Momma, the most wonderful thing happened, I was chosen attendant to the Homecoming Queen.Who's Queen? Momma answered.I am, said the daughter.”

“I am a school teacher doing life and death sums.”

“I think reading is part of the birthright of the human being”

“Sometimes things seem so unbearable in the middle of the night, don't they? In the middle of the night, we're all such children.”

“I don't run for my physical health, though that's a lucky side effect. I run because I'm tortured inside. I run to soothe the violence in my mind, the depression, the panic, the disappointments, the shame, the frustration, the helplessness against time. You could say I'm running from something... though I'd rather think I'm running TOWARD something. Though I'm probably running just to stay in one place. It seems like most of life is just maintenance, after all.”

“It seems to me that there are three principal scales of time, the present moment, a human lifetime, and the eternal. The problem with modern man is not so much that he situates himself in the future of a human lifetime, since he fears death far too much to do that, but rather than he does not situate himself in any of these three scales of time. Instead, he is forever stuck somewhere in-between, this evening, tomorrow morning, next week, next Christmas, in five years’ time. As a result, he has neither the joy of the present moment, nor the satisfied accomplishments of a human lifetime, nor the perspective and immortality of the eternal.”