“My existence shrank from an arrow of light pointing into the future forever to a speck of light that was the present moment. I got better at living in that point of light, making the world into that point. I paid close attention to it. I loved it very much.”

“What I want more than a car that goes from Point A to Point B, is a car that stops. I make it a point to break for love. My horn is broke—and so am I, but I get paid Friday.”

“It was then, there in the darkness, with only those little pin-points of light to see by, light from a world away where other people with their own problems and their own secrets lived their own lives, that everything in our world changed for good.”

“The blackness would stir and eventually go away, and God would remain, a shining point of light in my heart. I would go on loving.”

“Even that. What is the point in living forever, if it is not with the woman I love?”

“I am Elainedughter of Barnard of Ascolat.Motherless.Sisterless.I sing these words to you now,because the point of light grows smallerever smaller now,ever more distant now.And with this song, I pray I maypush back the tides of war and death.So, I sing these wordsthat this light, this tinyray of light and hope may live on.I dare not hope that Imay live on too.”