And that would be my method of locomotion, the Lion concluded. Not diplomas earned, but friendships bungled. Campaigns aborted. Errors in judgment and public humiliations.

Of course. You get everything from books.

It appears history is going to keep happening, despite our hopes for retirement.

To read, even in the half-dark, is also to call the lost forward.

There were people everywhere but no one was mine, and I was no one's.

I care as much as I can, but I don’t spend energy caring about things I cannot resolve.

But so often, before words can rise to the mind to imply the ineffable, the ineffable has effed off.

Do good though, will you?" She blinked brightly at the green girl. "If not for your parents or your grandmother, then for me?

Don't wish, "said Rain, "don't start. Wishing only...

This is what fun is like, " said Rain, almost to herself.

It’s been a long, rocky life, with plenty of possibility but too much human ugliness.

Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always sings.

To be great is not a word but work that makes a word.

Unfortunately, the Republican leadership in the House right now seems to have been strangled by the tea party.

We Latins are known for jabbering on.

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.

Life cannot go on without much forgetting.

Arbitrage human nature. It's not going to change any time soon.

Now I can wear high heels again.

Painting is a matter of finding the right balance between consoling and reassuring the eye and challenging and disturbing the eye.

My sole focus as far back as I can remember was all about my dream to become a singer.