[No] matter what a waste one has made of one's life, it is ever possible to find some path to redemption, however partial.

One time at the University of Colorado, at a faculty dinner, this professor said to me, 'Well, my goodness, a boy from Appa-lay-chee-a with a Ph.D!' The dinner was in her house. And I said, 'My grandparents didn't have indoor plumbing, but they had more books in their house than you do.' I was a little insulted by the Appa-lay-chee-a business.

I had never taken creative writing classes. Hadn't even considered it.

Nothing changes what alreaday happened. It will always have happened. You either let it break you down or you don't.

That's not a thing any of us are granted. To go back. Wipe away what later doesn't suit us and make it the way we wish it. You just go on

We mark some days as fair, some as foul, because we do not see that the character of every day as identical

Ask her what she craved, and she'd get a little frantic about things like books, the woods, music. Plants and the seasons. Also freedom.