Know this. I think you could be special if you only thought there was anything special about yourself.

A family is one of nature's solubles; it dissolves in time like salt in rainwater.

Because she deserved my tears if anyone on earth ever did. I could feel the tears within me, undiscovered, and untouched in their inland sea. Those tears had been with me always.

The only way I could endure being a coward was if I was the only one who knew it.

She was one of those Southerners who knew from an early age that the South could never be more for them than a fragrant prison, administered by a collective of loving but treacherous relatives.

When mom and dad went to war the only prisoners they took were the children

There's no word in the language I revere more than 'teacher.' My heart sings when a kid refers to me as his teacher, and it always has. I've honored myself and the entire family of man by becoming a teacher.