Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.

I wish I had a memory of that first violent shove, the shock of cold air, the sting of oxygen into new lungs. Everyone should remember being born. It doesn't seem fair that we only remember dying.

He says one word, nodding into the daylight. "Look." It's an astounding word. It's a gift.

When I am writing anything in general, I just want to tell the story that exists in my head; I don't try to write a parable or make a point.

I can almost see what Gabriel meant when he asked, 'What has the free world got that you can’t get here?' Almost. Freedom, Gabriel. That’s what you can’t get here.

For males twenty-five is the fatal age. For women it's twenty. We are all dropping like flies.

Gabriel's voice can reach me anywhere. Even in a hurricane.