We build a shell around it, like an oyster dealing with a painful particle of grit, coating it with smooth pearl layers in order to cope. This is how we walk and talk and function , day in, day out. Immune to others’ pain and loss.

We make choices. No one else can live our lives for us. And we must confront and accept the consequences of our actions.

When you die, they can make you into diamonds now. It’s scientific. That’s how I want to be remembered. I want to shine.

I don't know if any single book made me want to write. C.S. Lewis was the first writer to make me aware that somebody was writing the book I was reading - these wonderful parenthetical asides to the reader.

Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me over.

I was a stranger and you took me in. -Joji G. Shoji, d. 1921

All around me darkness gathers, Fading is the sun that shone, We must speak of other matters, You can be me when I'm gone Flowers gathered in the morning, Afternoon they blossom on, Still are withered in the evening, You can be me when I'm gone.