Finally, cooking is good citizenship. It's the only way to get serious about putting locally raised foods into your diet, which keeps farmlands healthy and grocery money in the neighborhood.

To think is not always to see.

What we end up calling history is a kind of knife, slicing down through time. A few people are hard enough to bend its edge. But most won't even stand close to the blade. I'm one of those. We don't bend anything.

Mistakes wreck your life. But they make what you have. It's kind of all one. You know what Hester told me when we were working the sheep one time? She said it's no good to complain about your flock, because it's the put-together of all your past choices.

It is completely usual for me to get up in the morning, take a look around, and laugh out loud.

The substance of grief is not imaginary. It's as real as rope or the absence of air, and like both those things, it can kill.

I could never work out whether we were to view religion as a life-insurance policy or a life sentence.