I think a good novel can be a doorstop to despair. I also think the real bravery comes with those who prepared to go through that door and look at the world in all its grime and torment, and still find something of value, no matter how small.

You can count the dead, but you can't count the cost. We've got no math for Heaven.

The stars looked like nail heads in the sky--pull a few of them out and the darkness would fall.

Even if people laughed at the notion of goodness, if they found it sentimental, or nostalgic, it didn't matter -- it was none of those things, he said, and it had to be fought for.

We shape ourselves by our imaginative reach.

He realized that he had thought only about the first step, never imagined the last.

The repeated lies become history, but they don't necessarily become the truth.