Hope, Patrick knew, was the exact measure of distancebetween himself and the person who’d come for help.
History could hover, like a faint perfume or a memory stamped on the back of one's eyelids.
Heroes were ordinary people who knew that even if their own lives were impossibly knotted, they could untangle someone else's. And maybe that one act could lead someone to rescue you right back.
Here's what no one ever tells you about love: it hurts, having your heart broken
Here are the things I know for sure: When you think you’re right, you are most likely wrong. Things that break—be they bones, hearts, or promises—can be put back together but will never really be whol...
He was suffering from wanderlust, complicated by the tension of knowing that he was rooted to this town by something as simple as his name.
He was a detective, but he didn’t detect anything. It fell into his lap, already broken,every time.
He swaggered over to my mother, and kissed her so long and slow that my own cheeks started to burn, because I was sure the neighbors would see. When he lifted his head, my mother's eyes were a color I...
He remembered learning in one of his social studies classesthat in the Old West, when Native Americans were thrown into jail, they sometimes dropped dead.The theory was that someone so used to the fre...
Happiness was relative
For the narrative to exist, so that it could be read and reread even if I was taken away. Stories outlive their writers all the time. We know plenty about Goethe and Charles Dickens from what they cho...
Fire and hope are connected, just so you know. The way the Greek told it, Zeus put Prometheus and Epimetheus in charge of creating life on earth. Epimetheus made the animals, giving out bonuses like s...
FREEDOM IS THE FRAGILE NECK of a daffodil, after the longest of winters. It’s the sound of your voice, without anyone drowning you out. It’s having the grace to say yes, and more important, the right...
Everytime I look at a zebra, I can't figure out whether it's black with white stripes or white with black stripes, and that frustrates me.
Every second, another streak of silver glows: parentheses, exclamation points, commas--a whole grammar made of light, for words to hard to speak.
Do you think there will ever be a time when racism doesn't exist?No, because that means white people would have to buy into being equal. Who'd choose to dismantle the system that makes them special?
Delilah's mother cleans other people's houses, and she reminds me a bit of another story from Rapscullio's shelves, about a young scullery maid who possesses both glass footwear and inner beauty, whic...
Death is the guest you didn't invite: arriving when you least expect it, least need it and when you least want it.
Change is a funny thing. We never are quite sure what we are becoming or even why. Then one day we look at ourselves and wonder who we are and how we got that way. Only one thing about change remains...
By definition, love made you better than good enough; it redefined perfection to include your traits, instead of excluding them.