It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.

Whoever coined the phrase 'a man's got to play the hand that was dealt him' was most certainly one piss-poor bluffer.

You didn't need a college degree to become one of the people who knew what was really going on. If you paid attention, you could pick things up on your own.

[Optimism] acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In this world, it's not enough to have a fine education. You need a piece of paper to prove you got it.

But the positive thoughts would give way to negative thoughts, and the negative thoughts seemed to swoop into her mind the way a big flock of black crows takes over the landscape, sitting thick in the trees and on the fence rails and lawns, staring at you in ominous silence.

Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you're young is good for you, she said. It immunized your body and your soul, and that was why she ignored us kids when we cried. Fussing over children who cry only encouraged them, she told us. That's positive reinforcement for negative behavior.