But the more people we love and the more deeply we love them, the more vulnerable we are to loss and grief and loneliness.

I need those nukes, the chief said. I need them, I need them right now. I don't want to be an enabler, sir. I'd rather get you into a twelve step program to help you break this addiction.

less real than such threats as a man with a gun, a woman with a knife, or a U.S. Senator with an idea.

What looks tragic might be comic on second consideration, and what is comic might bring tears in time.

Besides, I can't get to where I want to go by conscious or unconscious suicide. I've got my strange little life to lead. Leading it the best I can - that's how I buy the ticket to where I want to be.

Fate cannot be sidestepped or outrun.

Always, the eye sees more than the mind can comprehend, and we go through life self-blinded to much that lies before us. We want a simple world, but we live in a magnificently complex one, and rather than open ourselves to it, we perceive the world through filters that make it less daunting.