There is something human about the way people react to and identify with suffering. There's a lot more empathy in the world than we perhaps realize.

I'm just melancholy by nature, and a lot of that gets into my writing.

I was neither doing these people nor myself a favor by showing up when my heart wasn't in it. There were not getting the real me, the whole me, the true me.

Here, though, there is nothing. Nothing at all. The sky seems empty even when I am looking at the moon and stars.

Or even the state of Florida, where they are prepared to execute children. Umm, well, you hope that at least that there is something there to be claimed.

When you write ,it's like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse unruly strands and attempting to bring then unity.

Their Maker, she said, gives them the sky to carry because they are strong. These people do not know who they are, but if you see a lot of trouble in your life, it is because you were chosen to carry part of the sky on your head. -pg. 25