High fashion has the shelf life of potato salad. And when past its prime, it is similarly deadly.

Small change, small wonders - these are the currency of my endurance and ultimately of my life.

We must surely appear to the world as exactly what we are: a nation that organizes its economy around consuming twice as much oil as it produces, and around the profligate wastefulness of the wars and campaigns required to defend such consumption. In recent years we have defined our national interest largely in terms of the oil fields and pipelines we need to procure fuel.

There were two things about Mama. One is she always expected the best out of me. And the other is that then no matter what I did, whatever I came home with, she acted like it was the moon I had just hung up in the sky and plugged in all the stars. Like I was that good.

There is something in us that loves certain disasters and the fever of this moment and surrendering to that.

...nothing momentous comes in this world unless it comes on the shoulders of kindness.

You can curse the dead or pray for them, but don't expect them to do a thing for you. They're far too interested in watching us, to see what in heaven's name we will do next.