This wasn't the first time that I'd come close to death, but it was the first time I'd been involved in this part of it, this strange, terrible saying goodbye to someone you've loved.

You learn to write by doing it.

If our language is watered down, then mankind becomes less human, and less free.

We are suspicious of grace. We are afraid of the very lavishness of the gift.

We human beings grow through our failures, not our virtues.

When I look at the galaxies on a clear night - when I look at the incredible brilliance of creation, and think that this is what God is like, then instead of feeling intimidated and diminished by it, I am enlarged . . . I rejoice that I am a part of it.

Friends do everything they can to protect each other." --Polly