He used a minimum of words and no inflection whatsoever. It was a policeman's manner of speaking, direct and unadorned.

God answered prayers first by teaching the need to ask, second by using friends as holy messengers.

Alex had cooked, and coaxed, and helped Mark form borders around the shapeless days. Alex had given meaning to the word "servant".

For the Arab, the past does not merely live. The past defines the present.

His eyes touched lightly, and passed on.

It was typical of the American to identify the one unfinished strand.

Mark felt eyes on him as tight as a sniper's aim.

Normal Iraqi etiquette was forgotten the moment drivers sat behind the wheel.

The distance had been evaporated by humor

Simplicity make no mans great, but makes life easier and not complicated.

they have seen the likes of you before, they may be intrigued by the looks of you, but they know that you-like everyone else-will leave them in the end.

Parenting is meant to be just a natural part of life. You just think you know how to do it but, of course, it's much more complicated than that.

Abused patience turns to fury.

The older generation sat looking at the younger, and Kat wondered exactly when and how the baton had been passed. She wanted to know if it was too late to give it back.

Don't make the mistake of believing it's enough to reproduce the realities of life.... The object of art is to give life a shape, and to do it by every conceivable artifice.

Because you can't keep up the illusion forever," I say. "No one has that much magic.

As we wind on down the road, our shadows taller than our souls.

The time has come to turn to God and reassert our trust in Him for the healing of America - our country is in need of and ready for a spiritual renewal.

Don't prepare. Begin. Our enemy is not lack of preparation. The enemy is resistance, our chattering brain producing excuses. Start before you are ready.