Hope doesn't mean anything. ... Action's the only thing that counts.

Unlike my mother, my father does not cry quietly. His wails roll out like a wave of pain, and I scramble to roll up my window. My mother cannot hear that. I cannot bear to hear it myself. I am not used to my father's crying. I've had no time to harden my heart against him.

I think I learned a lot from reading in general - even from reading badly written books.

Nothing was more valuable than the printed word.

...it’d be like looking for a needle in a burning haystack.' 'Oh, I’ve done that,' Mark said airily. 'It’s a game we used to play, after we got rid of all our livestock and didn’t need our hay no more. You throw a match into the haystack, give the fire a three-second head start, and begin looking. You can find the needle every time if you work quick

I was lucky enough not to face any required summer reading lists until I went to college. So I still think of summer as the best time to read for fun.

Hope doesn't mean anything. ... Action's the only thing that counts.