... none of them had it. They had no qualms about stealing, but they needed to be told. They liked to be told, and Viktor Chemmel liked to be the teller. It was a nice microcosm.

A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.

Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.

If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter.

Often I wish this would all be over, Liesel, but then somehow you do something like walk down the basement steps with a snowman in your hands.

I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.

I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skills is their capacity to escalate.

No matter how many times she was told that she was loved, there was no recognition that the proof was in the abandonment.

It was the beginning of the greatest Christmas ever. Little food. No presents. But there was a snowman in their basement.

As always, one of her books was next to her.

If you can't imagine it, think clumsy silence. Think bits and pieces of floating despair. And drowning in a train.

Look for chances to take the less-traveled roads. There are no wrong turns.

Photos’re better than nothing, but things’re better than photos ’cause the things themselves were part of what was there.

I think of the church as this bride of Christ, who is incredibly capable of doing amazing things. And so where we see injustice, we come, not with fists clenched but with palms up.

I want to keep fighting because it's the only thing that keeps me out of the hamburger joints. If I don't fight, I'll eat this planet.

But one always returns to one's first loves. [Fr., Mais on revient toujours A ses premieres amours.]

If they think I'm going to stop at that stop sign, they're mistaken!

There's no such thing as being too Southern.

The United States Government has fought against creation of an international court to adjudicate the ability of national economies to pay debts.

One thing I've learned about life is that if you really let go, it's just a joy ride.

Through faithful practice, layer after layer of the mind opens before us, and each reveals new facts to us.