Once, I ordered two thousand lady bugs from the local garden center and set them loose in the atrium. I sprinkled marigold seeds in the ficus planters and put gold fish in the lobby fountain. These are things I did with no consequences, no repercussions. My nineteen detentions were for smart answers and missed homework. There is no equivalent punishment for making the world a stranger place.

From the window, I watch the city and the freeway. In the distance, the sky-rises look like mystic spires, unbearably close and far. I want to pick them up and eat them. I want to scream out loud sometimes, but I never do.

I had only to remember that centuries before, men fell in battle for the daughter of Troy, that passions carried greater weight than decorum. It took so little to prove that human life and property are devastatingly temporary. All she had to do was lie down for a prince. They burned the city to the ground.

All great acts are ruled by intention. What you mean is what you get.

I fell headfirst into a sinkhole of pretty things, and the world inside your eyelids is just as big as the one outside.

The things I had were mine and some of them were broken, but they were real. They were so very far from nothing.

Intention is one of the most powerful forces there is. What you mean when you do a thing will always determine the outcome. The law creates the world.