“Let the grave mound grow a little grass, I always say; then it’s safe to look.”

“If grass grows and withers, it can only mean that it is part of a greater thing, which is even more real; not that the grass is less real than it looks. St. Thomas (Aquinas) has a really logical right to say, in the words of the modern mystic, A. E.: "I begin by the grass to be bound again to the Lord.”

“And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves." "So grass is death too-it grows out of our buried bodies. The grass was so many different things at once, it was bewildering. So grass is a metaphor for life, and for death, and for equality, and for connectedness, and for God, and for hope.”

“We shove the dirt over the book, tamping down the disturbed soil. The grass will grow back soon enough. It will be for us the beautiful uncut hair of graves.”

“Keep looking only at me. There is no danger. You're perfectly safe. I've got you. I've always got you. You're mine. I will never let go. I will always protect you. You are my life now. Do you understand anything I'm saying?”

“I like it when a flower or a little tuft of grass grows through a crack in the concrete. It's so fuckin' heroic.”