A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens-second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter. Millions survive without love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives, from the small accounts of our day's events to the vast incommunicable constructs of psychopaths.

Stand up at sunrise and meet what they send you.

Cities are the least permanent things in our civilization.

The sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives.

Life is short and often stingy; feast the heart with what it craves, short of cruelty, and let the world wonder.

The only thing more destructive than a tornado is a family.

As a child I thought it was very boring when I had to sit with [my mother] on the city streets, but the time sank deep and surfaced later.