He leaned upon her as if there was no other support anywhere in the world, and she held him as if she would undertake no other task for all eternity.

I have changed for the last time--this is the man I will be till I die. And that man loves you.

Are you asking me if there is a god?' he said, still in that soft voice. 'All I can say is, I believe there is. I feel him when I sing. He has responded to my prayers countless times. He guides my actions and he dwells in my heart. I know he is there.

Yet the world is the same as it always was. It is merely that you see it with new eyes.

Do you love me?" he asked. I fell silent. "For the rest of it is glitter and noise," he said. "At the heart of it all is love. You make that choice, and you go forward from there.

Manufactured--synthetic--even virtual, if that is what you turned out to be--I would love you.

Love is a popular romantic notion that leads to nothing but its own brand of misery.