“This, Tony, is a living land, not a construction site. This isreal and breathing, not a fabrication that can be bullied intobeing. When you choose technique over relationship andprocess, when you try and shortcut the speed of growingawareness and force understanding and maturity before its time,this”—he pointed down and over the length”

“Our Land is alive, Esperanza...This whole valley breathes and lives...He picked up a handful of earth and studied it. Did you know that when you lie down on the land, you can feel it breathe? That you can feel its heart beating.”

“No one knows better than I do how far heaven is, but I also know all the shortcuts. The secret is to die, when you want to, and not when He proposes. Or else to force Him to take you before your time.”

“You can point to the alleged miracles of the Bible, or any other religious text, but they are nothing but old stories fabricated by man and then exaggerated over time.”

“Before, I was always trying to make my relationships work by means of willpower and forced affability. This time I didn't have to strive for anything. A quality of ease spread over us.”

“Software lives and matures over time.”