People don't pay attention. And then one day there's an accounting. And after that, nothing is the same.

It starts when you begin to overlook good manners. Any time you quit hearing Sir and Mam the end is pretty much in sight.

There was a sharp crack from somewhere on the mountain. Then another. It's just a tree falling, he said. It's okay. The boy was looking at the dead roadside trees. It's okay, the man said. All the trees in the world are going to fall sooner or later. But not on us.

The things that I loved were very frail. Very fragile. I didn't know that. I thought they were indestructible. They weren't.

It would take a hell of a wife to beat no wife at all.

It is personal. That's what an education does. It makes the world personal.

And the dreams so rich in color. How else would death call you? Waking in the cold dawn it all turned to ash instantly. Like certain ancient frescoes entombed for centuries suddenly exposed to the day.