“Here is a book of tongues.Take it. (Dark leaves invade the air.)Beware! I now know a language so beautiful and lethalMy mouth bleeds when I speak it.”

“But it is never over;nothing ends until we want it to.Look, in shattered midnights,On black ice under silver trees,We are still dancing, dancing.”

“Books are meat and medicineand flame and flight and flowersteel, stitch, cloud and clout,and drumbeats on the air.”

“Very early in life I became fascinated with the wonders language can achieve. And I began playing with words.”

“I thought it was who I was with or where I was that defined me in some way. I realize now that I decide who I am, no matter the company I keep or the place I am.”

“When it came time to build a tabernacle, the Israelite women brought all their mirrors to Moses so he could use them to make God's building more beautiful. (Exodus 38:8.) They were far more interested in enjoying God's glory than reflecting on their own images.”

“I don't know where this story ends, Bubby, and that's okay.”