...Some people hurt so much they can't take what they need, even when someone wants to give it to them. (106)

We are, all of us, crippled and twisted. Most of us strive desperately to keep our grotesqueries out of sight and mind. Our suffering is transformed by an alchemy of the soul into addiction, ulcers, strokes, hatred, even war.

But that's the hardest part of healing.' What?' Realizing there's no one to hate.

The good guys had to operate on a higher level than the killers--just for society to keep track of who was who.

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

The irrational thoughts were the ones with the power to burn holes in your gut.

...the horrific fact that our lives and those of the people we love are impermanent and exquisitely fragile, that any of us can cease to exist without warning, that loving anyone, anywhere, at any time, leaves you infinitely vulnerable at every single moment. (20)