“...for one instant, I saw the stars close enough to touch. Closer than that, part of me. Are they really so far or just that we never reach for them?”

“I know why men lose sight of the face of God: because it is so close.”

“And youth, though they see every day the cradle and grave shaped so alike, never believe death will happen to them. I told you it was a comedy.”

“Part of what we are is whom we’ve loved.”

“Between blow and pain, there is that instant of numbness, an unreal moment...”

“There’s not a stone or leaf or life that men won’t put a name to. It gives them a nice safe box to collect things in. They get in the habit of collecting things and end up surprised at the weight they’re carrying. A dream they thought might fit someday, something bright and sweet like a woman, picked up for her shine and somehow never left or at least never forgotten. Or an ambition! There’s a fine item in any man’s bag. A great, glowing ambition. They never fade, never wear even when you’ve outgrown them. Always there to look at and remember and play might-have-been.”

“A while ago in real-time you saw the eagles. And you wished.”