The cake had a trick candle that wouldn't go out, so I didn't get my wish. Which was just that it would always be like this, that my life could be a party just for me.

She would be half a planet away, floating in a turquoise sea, dancing by moonlight to flamenco guitar.

The phoenix must burn to emerge.

Always learn poems by heart. They have to become the marrow in your bones. Like fluoride in the water, they'll make your soul impervious to the world's soft decay.

You were my home, Mother. I had no home but you

Whenever she turned her steep focus to me, I felt the warmth that flowers must feel when they bloom through the snow, under the first concentrated rays of the sun.

I hated labels anyway. People didn't fit in slots--prostitute, housewife, saint--like sorting the mail. We were so mutable, fluid with fear and desire, ideals and angles, changeable as water.

I couldn't imagine owning beauty like my mothers. I wouldn't dare.

Oleander time, she said. Lovers who kill each other now will blame it on the wind.

Her hatred glittered irresistibly. I could see it, the jewel, it was sapphire, it was the cold lakes of Norway.

Don't turn over the rocks if you don't want to see the pale creatures who live under them.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens 'till parents stop clenching their fists around precious things and people, let go, & trust God!

....life is the work of the spirit trying to have a human experience.

Colors close together on the color wheel are analogous and will make a calm room. Colors that are farther apart are complementary and add drama.

Don't 'just do it.' First, plan it, then do it.

The world had already changed before September 11. The world has been going through a process of change over the last 20 or 30 years. A civilization ends, another one begins.

No one has a right to occupy the privileged position all the time, so it should be contested. It should always be messy in there.

We have seen this complete right wing takeover of modern liberalism, and it is an ugly spectacle to behold.

Like any dealer he was watching for the card that is so high and wild he'll never need to deal another. He was just some Joseph looking for a manger.

Unsuccessful people get jealous when they watch the Mastery of others. Successful people get inspired.

Nobody seemed to have any perspective any longer. Those were low points. But we got through it.