“If you are very lucky, you're allowed to be in certain places during just the right season of your life: by the sea for the summer when you're seven or eight and full of the absolute need to swim until dark and exhaustion close their hands together, cupping you in between.”

“Fall, like the season, like right now. Fall is the transition period between summer and winter. Summer is fun and carefree and cheery. Winter is also beautiful, but it's harder, not as carefree. You're no longer a child, and you're not really an adult yet. You're going through a transition, just like the seasons.”

“When you're up there hundreds of people will claim you as a friend. When you're down, you're lucky if one will buy you a cup of coffee.”

“...a river season will last as long as it takes you to reach your newplace. If you get into the river and let it take you where you need tobe, your river season will last an afternoon. But if you fear changeand struggle and hold on to the rocks, the river season will last andlast. It will not end until your body becomes exhausted, your gripweakens, your hands slide off the rocks and the current takes you toyour new place.”

“When you're a student of poetry, you're lucky if you don't realize how untalented you are until you get a little better. Otherwise, you would just stop.”

“If you're lucky, the friends you make when you're sixteen stay with you for the rest of your life. If you're smart, you know when it's time to let them go.”