Fun, like champagne bubbles, can't completely fill you up.

What is genius, anyway, if it isn't the ability to give an adequate response to a great challenge?

It was like that. Sometimes I'd go for a period—days or weeks—without feeling the full sweep of my loss, and then as unexpected as a thunderclap, the realization would rip the protective coating from my senses. Maybe that's the way it is with trick knees and aging griefs. Totally pain free one moment and absorbingly painful the next.

And marking off time struck me as something like counting empty spaces—spaces you know can't ever be filled.

I love Arkansas but I think Arkansas has its share of unlit minds.

It seems to me that a man who is incapable of humor is capable of cruelty.

Maybe...in a way, this coffee reminds me of something. Maybe...maybe only a philosopher or a mad man would make this connection, but it's a little like life. I mean it's powerful going down and that doesn't even take into account the aftertaste, which really takes getting used to.