I close my eyes. An image flashes—emerging from the van with Julian after our escape from New York City; believing, in that moment, that we had escaped the worst, that life would begin again for us. Instead life has only grown harder.

Most things, even the greatest movements on earth, have their beginnings in something small. An earthquake that shatters a city might begin with a tremble, a breath. Music begins with a vibration . . . And God created the whole universe from an atom no bigger than a thought.

I start to back away before I do something wildly inappropriate, like jump on top of him.

Rainstorms are incredible: falling shards of glass, the air full of diamonds.

Love obeys no laws other than its own.

The flip side of freedom is this: When you're completely free, you're also completely on your own.

People are like ants: Just a few of them give all the orders. And most of them spend their lives getting squashed.