“For this is Wisdom; to love, to liveTo take what fate, or the Gods may give.To ask no question, to make no prayer,To kiss the lips and caress the hair,Speed passion's ebb as you greet its flowTo have, -to hold -and -in time, -let go!”

“For this is wisdom- to love and liveTo take what fate or the Gods may give,To ask no question, to make no prayer,To kiss the lips and caress the hair,Speed passion's ebb as we greet its flow,To have and to hold, and, in time--let go.”

“Men should be judged, not by their tint of skin,the Gods they serve, the Vintage they drink,nor by the way they fight, or love, or sin,But by the quality of the thought they think.”

“You have reached the home and workplace of Roberto Natchez. I do not often take calls. I make no promise to return them. I have much to do. You may leave a message if you wish.”

“Say a prayer to whatever God you believe in or none, and find the strength within you to keep going, and get back on the road after every fall and write, then write some more. You’re a writer, if you write.”

“Where I'm going, anything may happen. Nothing may happen. Maybe I will marry a middle-aged widower, or a longshoreman, or a cattle-hoof-trimmer, or a barrister or a thief. And have my children in time. Or maybe not. Most of the chances are against it. But not, I think, quite all. What will happen? What will happen. It may be that my children will always be temporary, never to be held. But so are everyone's.I may become, in time, slightly more eccentric all the time. I may begin to wear outlandish hats, feathered and sequinned and rosetted, and dangling necklaces made from coy and tiny seashells which I've gathered myself along the beach and painted coral-pink with nail polish. And all the kids will laugh, and I'll laugh, too, in time. I will be light and straight as any feather. The wind will bear me, and I will drift and settle, and drift and settle. Anything may happen, where I'm going.”

“Must've been off my head, wandering around the harbour so long. Didn't even get the nightgowns. Are the kids okay? Damn, I wish I didn't always have to be home at the right time. At the Day of Judgement, God will say Stacy MacAindra, what have you done with your life? And I'll say, Well, let's see, Sir, I think I loved my kids. And He'll say, Are you certain of that? And I'll say, God, I'm not certain about anything any more. So He'll say, To hell with you, then. We're all positive thinkers up here. Then again, maybe He wouldn't. Maybe He'd say, Don't worry, Stacy, I'm not all that certain, either. Sometimes I wonder if I even exist. And I'd say, I know what you mean, Lord. I have the same trouble with myself.”