Finally the dawn came, the sky fringed with pink, and the sun bright as a coin in a spill of rising red.

... instead of spelling stories you spread silence, which was outside the alphabet.

I didn't know then that the mind, like the earth, has several layers: a crust, a mantle, a boiling core.

...tethered to the ground by quotidian conversation.... the window rosy with anemic November light.

...the clear water the color of deeply steeped tea, surrounded by cattails and gracile grasses.

It is a fundamental misperception, " Fouts says to me, "to think human life has more value than any other life form.

To be human, that's what most of us long for. It is the human which has become myth to us.

It would be a lovely place if we didn't necessarily judge or jump to conclusions because someone wants to wear a dress or because someone wants to wear pants.

I'm not going to tell [Vladimir] Putin what to do. Why should I tell Putin what to do?

My furniture is banal and my house is pretty empty. The hardest thing to find is a sofa that is comfortable and looks good. The ones I like are never comfortable.

The happiness of the tender heart is increased by what it can take away from the wretchedness of others.

I've managed to include only enough historical detail to give the "flavor" of the time period while keeping the characters and story focal.

I wouldn't say in all situations, but a lot of times kids can be the most reasonable people around because they don't have the deal with all the drama that goes along with being an adult.

Poetry is also the physical self of the poet, and it is impossible to separate the poet from his poetry.

When I first started, my main goal was to not be bartending anymore, and to not be working at the bank anymore. I just wanted acting to be my job.

An investor should act as though he had a lifetime decision card with just twenty punches on it.