When it seems you have nothing at all to live for, death is not especially frightening.

I have lived with magic and without magic, and I can tell you with certainty that a life with magic is better.

He recalls what that first German soldier said to his major: No God-not yours or mine-approves of what you're doing.

The honest answer is more complex. On some level I was sent. Or inspired. Or called. But my calling, such as it was, wasn't a single booming invitation from above (really, is it ever?).

He defined himself almost wholly in the negative: It was not who he was, it was who he was not.

And though some days it is very hard, I try not to live for the future. And I try not to dream of the past.

Life is filled with small moments that seem prosaic until one has the distance to look back and see the chain of large moments they unleashed.