“That was the trouble with smart men. They thought they had all the answers, and then when life knocked them aside, they thought it was all their faults.”

“He had always thought there was an answer to all life's mysteries in the stars, yet whenever he stared at them the answer slipped out of his grasp... But he had to think now, and he stared at the smoke-dimmed stars in the hope that they would help him, but all they did was go on shining.”

“Centering Prayer is an opening, a response, a putting aside of all the debris that stands in the way of our being totally present to the present Lord, so that He can be present to us. It is a laying aside of thoughts, so that the heart can attend immediately to Him. All prayer is a response. The Lord first knocks, beckons, calls to us.”

“The trouble was, I had been inadequate all along, I simply hadn't thought about it.”

“Maybe he should have thought about all this before he knocked her up with the life-sucking monster.”

“You know something,Jacob, I'd hate to be as smart as Jonh. I mean he was really, really smart, and to be that smart means you know all the answers, and when you know all the answers there's no room for dreaming.”