hills that stand soft and a sky that stands high and blue, and the sun setting behind a windmill, and always, always, hazy strings of mountains that fall and fall away on the horizon.

Attention shifted to him like sunflowers turning to the sun.

One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.

And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.

A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer.

Nothing good came free. Even love. You paid for all things. And if you were poor, suffering was your currency.

But time, it is like charm. You never have as much as you think.

The desert weed lives on, but the flower of spring blooms and wilts.

I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.

Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it.

It's a funny thing... but people mostly have it backward. They think they live by what they want. But really, what guides them is what they're afraid of. What they don't want.

At the end of faith there is always some calamity

Kindness begins in the heart of a willing mind.

If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.

Keep cool anger is not an argument.

One can transform a place by reading in it.

The compass of accurate knowledge directs the shortest, safest, cheapest course to any destination

I saw John Garfield smoke. He was my idol, so I smoked. I even smoked like him.

I'm most proud of my family.

How good it is for us when the Lord unsettles our lukewarm and superficial lives.

When I was growing up, the really, really cool super heroes were all male - so I wanted to be them.