That's all that matters, really: that we can make each other feel better.

The broom wasn't as comforting as a flamethrower would have been, but it was better than a mop and certainly more threatening than a feather duster.

As long as I have laughter, I am not without hope

Although she had resisted this knowledge all her life, had lived determinedly in the future focused there by ambition, she understood at last that this was the real condition of humanity: The dance of life occurred not yesterday or tomorrow, but only here at the still point that was the present. This truth is simmple, sel-evident, but difficult to accept, for we sentimentalize the past and wallow in it, while we endure the moment and in every waking hour dream of the future.

Home is the first refuge from - and last defense against - the disappointments and the terrors of life.

What has been is no more. Change has come.

The brain acknowledged the approach of death while the heart stubbornly insisted upon immortality.