“I searched for my own heartand long after I had lost my wayin the days trailing past with their foliagein the aloof sky blue with distanceI thought I'd find my heartwhere I'd kept your eyes two brown butterfliesand I saw the swallows swoopand shadows starlings”

“Bitterbessie dagbreekbitterbessie son'n spieël het gebreektussen my en homSoek ek na die grootpadom daarlangs te draforal draai die paadjiesvan sy woorde afDennebos herinneringdennebos vergeethet ek ook verdwaaltrap ek in my leedpapegaai-bont eggokierang kierang mytotdat ek bedroëweer die koggel kryEggo is geen antwoordantwoord hy alombitterbessie dagbreekbitterbessie son”

“I had not suffered enough to find the rage in my guts I needed to struggle to death for my freedom.”

“Will looked back at me, startled, and I kept my heart muscle strong, feeling something inside me shiver like a pale green flower shoot just waking up for spring. But whatever that thing was, it was still too new to feel ready to bloom; it wanted time to set down roots. Someday soon I was going to bloom like crazy and then I'd have what I needed to keep me standing tall.”

“The book in my hands became my trusted companion. What was written there had so much power that it forced me to stop avoiding myself, to make my own choices as well. And through some sort of vital intuition, I understood that I had a long way to go, that it would bring about a profound transformation within me, even though I could not determine it's essence, or its scope. In that book there was a voice, and behind that voice threw was an intelligence that sought to establish contact with me. It was not merely the company of written words that distiller my boredom. It was a living voice, speaking. To me.”

“Now I realized that life supplies us with everything we need for the journey. Everything I had acquired either actively or passively, everything I had learned either voluntarily or by osmosis, was coming back to me as the real riches of my life, even though I had lost everything.”

“I told myself that I'd had life too easy, conditioned by an upbringing where fear of change was disguised as caution.”