“Silence was not the absence of sound but was itself a sound that could be loud or soft, soothing or disturbing, complex or simple.”

“To give good hugs you have to have some soft places. —Jeremy Richards”

“Dying ain't important. Everyone does that. What's important is how well you do your living.”

“It ain't how long you know somebody that means anything. It's what that person mean to you in your heart.”

“He took the box but did not avail himself of a tissue. She understood. Sometimes it was comforting to feel the wetness of grief's tears on your face.”

“Just because you're bron to someone, it doesn't mean you belong to them.”

“Stagolee was, undoubtedly and without question, the baddest nigger that ever lived. Stagolee was so bad that the flies wouldn't even fly around his head in the summertime, and snow wouldn't fall on his house in the winter. He was bad, jim. ”