Learning stamps you with its moments. Childhood's learning is made up of moments. It isn't steady. It's a pulse.

When they turned off, it was still early in the pink and green fields. The fumes of morning, sweet and bitter, sprang up where they walked. The insects ticked softly, their strength in reserve; butterflies chopped the air, going to the east, and the birds flew carelessly and sang by fits and starts, not the way they did in the evening in sustained and drowsy songs.

I believe the alphabet is no longer considered an essential piece of equipment for traveling through life. In my day it was the keystone to knowledge. You learned the alphabet as you learned to count to ten, as you learned "Now I lay me" and the Lord's Prayer and your father's and mother's name and address and telephone number, all in case you were lost.

The mystery in how little we know of other people is no greater than the mystery of how much, Laurel thought.

it doesn t matter if it takes a long time getting there; the point is to have a destination.

All good writers speak in honest voices and tell the truth.

At the time of writing, I don't write for my friends or myself either; I write for it, for the pleasure of it.