“But there are times when a tree can no longer withstand the pain inflicted on it, and the wind will take pity on that tree and topple it over in a mighty storm. All the other trees who witnessed the evil look down upon the fallen tree with envy. They pray for the day when a wind will end their suffering. I pray for the day when God will end mine.”

“Goodness was not a trait you acquired; it was a value you practiced when you were on the verge of doing evil.”

“....the racial divides in the United States will not be overcome until lynchings of all kinds are as painful to nonblacks as they are to blacks, until each of us become guardians of the sufferings history has bequeathed us.”

“The young accept the extraordinary as normal because they do not compare their lives with those of others when everyone is like them.”

“But I want you around even when I don't need you. —Jeremy Richards”

“There was an end to weeping. Mourning, however, ebbed and surged but never ceased flowing.”

“Perhaps one of the writer's tasks is to weave himself into others' pain.”