In this world of numbness and information overload, the ability to feel, my boy, is a rare gift indeed.

Superior numbers versus superior firepower. A recipe for unending slaughter.

Viola blows out a thoughtful air. "My dad used to say, 'There's only forward, Vi, only outward and up.'" "There's only forward," I repeat. "Outward and up," she says.

If you ever want to see how small you are in the plan of God, just stand at the edge of an ocean.

There's always beauty, if you know where to look.

Stories don’t always have happy endings.

The green things of this world are just wondrous, aren’t they?” his mother went on. “We work so hard to get rid of them when sometimes they’re the very thing that saves us.