There's nothing to be gained from passive observance, the simple documenting of conditions, because, at its core, it sets a bad example. Every time something is observed and not fixed, or when one has a chance to give in some way and does not, there is a lie being told, the same lie we all know by heart but which needn't be reiterated.

It was always difficult to get cattle returned once a marriage was dissolved.

I publish my own books, so there isn't a certain editor I owe the book to at a publishing house.

It all meant something. Until it didn't.

If you think I'm annoying and preachy now, you should have known me in grade school.

He remained, weeks after awakening, in that period of early-morning consciousness that allows easy re-entry to dreaming. His limbs still tingled with the residue of sleep, and most days he wanted badly to allow it to overtake him again.

My head was a condemned church with a ceiling of bats, but I swung from this dark mood to euphoria when I thought about leaving.