“Since fire's born of fire, why should we desireTo gather up its scattered ash.On the appointed day we surrendered what we wereTo a vaster blaze, the evening sky.”

“When it touches your soul, truth is like fire," he began. "As you know, when we rest too close to the fire we quickly become uncomfortable. Too close and it even becomes painful. But that doesn't always mean we should try to elude its flames.”

“Will non-English-speaking students start speaking English because their teachers were fired? Will children come to school ready to learn because their teachers were fired?It would be good if our nation's education leaders recognized that teachers are not solely responsible for student test scores. Other influences matter, including the students' effort, the family's encouragement, the effects of popular culture, and the influence of poverty. A blogger called "Mrs. Mimi" wrote the other day that we fire teachers because "we can't fire poverty." Since we can't fire poverty, we can't fire students, and we can't fire families, all that is left is to fire teachers.”

“A consensus slowly gathered among us. We had given up something important, we believed: the fire, the vigor, that came with a lack of ease. We had lost some of the difficulty of our lives, and we wanted it back.”

“He's back! He's back!""Who's back?" shouted someone else. "Who is it?""What does it mean? What should we do?""Are we on fire?""Get up and run, damn it! Everybody get up and run!”

“You aren't worried are you?""Why should I be worried? It's just another day in the neighborhood. You know - bombs, fires, people shooting at you. Why should I be worried? Especially since we could be clothes shopping or boarding a plane. I'm not in the least worried.""Hmmm," he mused allowed. "I read about this in the relationship manual. It's called womanly sarcasm and usually means a man is in deep trouble.”