Sometimes the things we really want are right in front of us. We just don't see them.

Julie always tried to stand beside me, or talk to me, or in some other way mortify me.

There's nothing like a headstrong woman to make you happy to be alive.

There was other stuff, too, like how something can be so much more than the parts it took to make it, and why people need things around them that lift them above their lives and make them feel the miracle of living.

Turn down a chance to feel magic for fear of a little dirt?

The room fell quiet. And as I read down the list of over one hundred and fifty eight-grade boys, I realized that to me, there had only ever been one boy.

A painting is more than the sum of its parts,' he would tell me, and then go on to explain how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun peeking through the trees is just a beam of light, but put them all together and you've got magic.