Her smile steps offstage for a moment, then does an encore, all while I'm dealing with my blushing face.

Loneliness becomes an acid that eats away at you.

Nobody's going to win all the time. On the highway of life you can't always be in the fast lane.

Not just beautiful, though--the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they're watching me.

Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for life

Not just beautiful, though — the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they’re watching me. What I’ve up till now, what I’m going to do — they know it all. Nothing gets past their watchful eyes. As I sit there under the shining night sky, again a violent fear takes hold of me. My heart’s pounding a mile a minute, and I can barely breathe. All these millions of stars looking down on me, and I’ve never given them more than a passing thought before. Not just the stars — how many other things haven’t I noticed in the world, things I know nothing about?

It doesn’t matter how old I get, but as long as I continue to live I’ll always discover something new about myself.