Lexical variety, eccentric constructions and punctuation, variant spellings, archaisms, the ability to pile clause on clause, the effortless incorporation of words from other languages: flexibility, and inclusiveness, is what makes English great; and diversity is what keeps it healthy and growing, exuberantly regenerating itself with rich new forms and usages.

And the flavor of Pippa's kiss--bittersweet and strange--stayed with me all the way back uptown, swaying and sleepy as I sailed home on the bus, melting with sorrow and loveliness, a starry ache that lifted me up above the windswept city like a kite: my head in the rainclouds, my heart in the sky.

It is is better to know one book intimately than a hundred superficially.

Who cares? If he is good to you? None of us ever find enough kindness in the world, do we?

Children love secret club houses. They love secrecy even when there's no need for secrecy

...as we rise from the organic and sink back ignominiously into the organic, it is a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn't touch.

I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.