Terms like that, 'Humane Society,' are devised with people like me in mind, who don't care to dwell on what happens to the innocent.

If I had to give up my life for anything, it would have to have the resilience of hope, the elation of new literacy, the brilliant life of a field of flowers, the elementary kindness of bread. Nothing short of that. It would have to be something as sure as love.

Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you’re good, bad things can still happen. And if you’re bad, you can still be lucky.

she's never forgotten, either, how a mystery caught in the hand could lose its grace

The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words.

The most important part of a story is the piece of it you don't know.

I live in a rural part of Virginia surrounded by farms and farmers.