Continue. Be loving and be strong. Be fierce and be kind. And don't give in and don't give up.'

The children to whom we read simple stories may or may not show gratitude, but each boon we give strengthens the pillars of the world.

Until recently each generation found it more expedient to plead guilty to the charge of being young and ignorant, easier to take the punishment meted out by the older generation (which had itself confessed to the same crime short years before). The command to grow up at once was more bearable than the faceless horror of wavering purpose, which was youth.

Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it empowers us to develop courage; to trust that courage and build bridges with it; to trust those bridges and cross over them so we can attempt to reach each other.

Today, the first & last of every Tree/ Speaks to humankind. Come to me, here beside the River.

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.

I'm happy to be a writer - of prose, poetry, every kind of writing. Every person in the world who isn't a recluse, hermit or mute uses words. I know of no other art form that we always use.