“Truth was such a tricky thing when it came to children. When was it good medicine and when was it poison”

“The fragile and ancient hurt that seeps out of adults when they speakof wronged childhoods.”

“It is one of those rare moments when we seem to forget everything,forget this insistence on living in the moment.”

“In many ways we were what Billy and Ruth Graham called 'happily incompatible'.”

“Maybe mountaineering shouldn't be considered heroic at all, since the whole effort is 'useless' and in no way to be compared with sitting down at the wrong lunch counter in the early-sixties South, or going into battle. Nevertheless, situations arise in the useless enterprise of mountaineering that present people with choices, that make emotional and physical demands that few can meet.”

“It matters what myths we tell ourselves -- which ideals we choose to honor.”

“Don't go back to teaching - it sucks the marrow from your sould andyour wisdom fades into the brick brains of those who can not learnwhat they do not know. Teaching is a wall falling into a vermilionsea. What I like most about you is your yellow flaring laugh and itlashing joyfully against the wind of your anguish.”