Many trees have died so that the Catholic Church can preach against homosexuality.

You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.

Sometimes Chris wished he could sneak a peek at the back of the book, so to speak, and see how it was all going to turn out, so that he wouldn't have to bother going through the motions.

When I was little I bragged about my firefighting father: my father would go to heaven, because if he went to hell he would put out all the fires.

Maybe you had to leave in order to really miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was... ...Parents aren't the people you come from. They're the people you want to be, when you grow up. I sat between my mother and my father, watching strangers on TV carry in Shaker rockers and dusty paintings and ancient beer tankards and cranberry glass dishes; people and their hidden treasures, who had to be told by experts that they'd taken something incredibly precious for granted.

I once heard someone on a bus say that this guy had gotten under her skin. And it struck me as a remarkable thought - that someone would affect you so deeply they'd always be a part of you.

They say that there are moments that open up your life like a walnut cracked, that change your point of view so that you never look at things the same way again.