My mother's blood that would last forever after. The blood of my brother, my grandfather, my father.

I wept to think that life went on even when so much had been lost, that rain still fell and myrtle grew between the rocks.

I read everything of Ray Bradbury when I was 12 or 13, and I think that's the most effective time to read Bradbury. He built such a moral world, where you have to make decisions and grow up.

Just because something is unspoken doesn't mean that it disappears.

Remember what I've told you. Remember me.

Never look at other people's bad fortune,' my mother said. 'If you do, it will come back to find you instead of its rightful owner.

...and so many orchards circled the village that on some crisp October afternoons the whole wold smelled like pie.