First and foremost, I would put a massive national emphasis on illiteracy with real markers that you could measure and real efforts to do a one-on-one kind of tutoring until kids can get up to snuff on that.

Bad news has no limits. We often feel it should, like a rainstorm that can't possibly get any heavier. But a storm can always worsen, & the burdens of life can too.

Happiness in a tablet. This is our world. Prozac. Daxil. Xanax. Billions are spent to advertise such drugs. And billions are spent purchasing them. You don't even need a specific trauma, just 'general depression' is enough, or anxiety, as if sadness is as treatable as the common cold.

What she mostly wanted, he learned, was the same thing many people want--someone to notice she was there.

I'm being made aware of my mortality all the time.

When someone is in your heart, they're never truly gone. They can come back to you, even at unlikely times.

You're not going to fix things by helping 65-year-olds or 75-year-olds for any long run.