“...you do violence with your words if you force them - art is given - the words received, moment by moment from unseen hands - call it a Muse ...”

“The forces of chaos, I had learned, were only *enemy forces if you attempted to resist them. The moment you accepted the idea that your life could, and probably would, veer off in an implausible new direction at any given moment, those forces started working *for you. Because if anything was possible...well, then *anything was possible.”

“The words get easier the moment you stop fearing them.”

“I do know that the right words, spoken from the heart with conviction, with a vision of a better place and a faith in the unseen, are a call to action.”

“The Greeks were so committed to ideas as supernatural forces that they created an entire group of goddesses (not one but nine) to represent creative power; the opening lines of both The Iliad and The Odyssey begin with calls to them. These nine goddesses, or muses, were the recipients of prayers from writers, engineers, and musicians. Even the great minds of the time, like Socrates and Plato, built shrines and visited temples dedicated to their particular muse (or muses, for those who hedged their bets). Right now, under our very secular noses, we honor these beliefs in our language, as the etymology of words like museum ("place of the muses") and music ("art of the muses") come from the Greek heritage of ideas as superhuman forces.”

“All the pictures that hung in my memory before I knew you have faded and given place to our radient moments together. Now I cannot live apart from you... Your words are my food, your breath is my wine. You are everything to me.”