And what I was feeling was the wonder Of being more than me, of being more Than mere here and now allowed I had become a shining star, a burning nova Exploded with love Flying through an endlessly Expanding universe Away from the me that was Toward a me that is beyond Understanding.

Each generation seems to invent its own reasons for war.

I would enjoy having dinner with the poet/playwright Derek Walcott.

I talk to myself out loud at times, and feel embarrassed when people overhear me.

I think it's difficult for young people to acknowledge being smart, to knowledge being a reader. I see kids who are embarrassed to read books. They're embarrassed to have people see them doing it.

The best time to cry is at night, when the lights are out and someone is being beaten up and screaming for help.

I joined the army on my seventeenth birthday, full of the romance of war after having read a lot of World War I British poetry and having seen a lot of post-World War II films. I thought the romantic presentations of war influenced my joining and my presentation of war to my younger siblings.