And if there are no cars or planes, and if no one’s Uncle John is out in the wood lot west of town banging away at a quail or pheasant; if the only sound is the slow beat of your own heart, you can hear another sound, and that is the sound of life winding down to its cyclic close, waiting for the first winter snow to perform last rites.

I hope you liked them, Reader; that they did for you what any good story should do--make you forget the real stuff weighing on your mind for a little while and take you away to a place you've never been. It's the most amiable sort of magic I know.

I hated school. I don't trust anybody who looks back on the years from 14 to 18 with any enjoyment. If you liked being a teenager, there's something really wrong with you.

Words create sentences; sentences create paragraphs; sometimes paragraphs quicken and begin to breathe.

Grammar is...the pole you grab to get your thoughts up on their feet and walking.

FEAR stands for face everything and recover – Old AA saying

I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright.