He has to find more and better ways of occupying his time. His time, what a bankrupt idea, as if he's been given a box of time belonging to him alone, stuffed to the brim with hours and minutes that he can spend like money. Trouble is, the box has holes in it and the time is running out, no matter what he does with it.

A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.

Little girls are cute and small only to adults. To one another they are not cute. They are life-sized.

To take that risk, to offer life and remain alive, open yourself like this and become whole.

Children were vehicles for passing things along. These things could be kingdoms, rich wedding gifts, stories, grudges, blood feuds. Through children, alliances were forged; through children, wrongs were avenged. To have a child was to set loose a force in the world.

Every utopia - let's just stick with the literary ones - faces the same problem: What do you do with the people who don't fit in?

An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness.