“But here, two thousand miles from home, there was a real shipwreck, a real hope. A choice big enough to change our lives forever.”

“Twelve thousand miles of it, to the other side of the world. And whether they came home again or not, they would belong neither here, nor there, for they would have lived on two continents and sampled two different ways of life.”

“Writers and artists build by hand little worlds that they hope might effect change in real minds, in the real world where stories are read. A story can make us cry and laugh, break our hearts, or make us angry enough to change the world.”

“Changing the big picture takes time.. and the best things to do is focus on the things that we can make in our lives if we're doing all that. That becomes the collage of real change”

“Reality's all you've got. But here's the real secret, the real miracle: it's enough.”

“Here's champagne for our real friends, and real pain for our sham friends.”