What would you rather be, Jackie? Angry mad or crazy mad? I think I'd rather be crazy mad, because you can be crazy and still happy.

And in the background of Early's story was her voice. Her soul. Her sadness and longing. Because when it's raining, it's always Billie Holiday. p. 81

But my mom shook her head at him and said to me, "Yes, you made your bed, but for heaven's sakes, don't just lie in it!

A wife is the earth itself, changing hands, bearing scars.

If you ignore every single thing Jesus told you to do, you are just auditing. You're not a Christian.

There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do.

Now that everyone is reinventing and innovating, advantage goes to those who keep at it. We need to greet even success with humility.

There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous.

Being able to "go beyond the information" given to "figure things out" is one of the few untarnishable joys of life.

Of dead kingdoms I recall the soul, sitting amid their ruins

I didn't choose poetry: poetry chose me.

Life was such a strange thing, so permanent when one had it, so fleeting when it was lost- and those who lost it could never tell you what it was like, could they?

Problems are God's resistance to create spiritual muscles.