When we are touched by a song, it is because the artist cannot hide himself.

I bargain now. I offer buttons for his love.

As I grew older, I understood that instructions came with this voice. What were these instructions? The instructions were never to lament casually. And if one is to express the great inevitable defeat that awaits us all, it must be done within the strict confines of dignity and beauty.

Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as secrets to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.

You've got a deadline. Well, I do, too: death.

Oh the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone.

I think that really what our training, what our culture, our religious institutions, our educational and cultural institutions should be about is preparing the heart for that journey outside of the cage of the ribs.