Deep down, everyone wants the truth.

But insight doesn't necessarily produce self-control. Sometimes you just see your destructiveness more clearly.

Human empathy, while not found on any chart of human anatomy, is the reason we instinctively hurt for our children... it is the reason that one human being's intensely personal tests and triumphs can be harnessed to the good of countless others.

What was it about not knowing a person that allowed you to wonder whether she might be the answer to all your problems?

I figured anybody who talked about church as much as she did was using it a little like cocaine anyhow.

Maybe the trying is the thing. Maybe it doesn't get better than that. Maybe you never quite get there. And maybe that's okay.

What about my rights? What about a person's privacy? Did all that just go to hell after 9/11?