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.

This country was filled with violent children orphaned by war.

I always thought when I got older that God would sort of come into my life in some way. He didn't. I don't blame him. If I was him I'd have the same opinion about me that he does.

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.

What could a child know of the darkness of God's plan? Or how flesh is so frail it is hardly more than a dream

When the lies are all told and forgot the truth will be their yet.