“I have to face the fear. I have to take control of the situation and find a way to make it less frightening.”

His fingers slide into my hair, and I hold on to his arms to stay steady as we press together like two blades at a stalemate.

Nature is neutral. Nature doesn’t care how much money a person makes.

…there is power in self-sacrifice.

The truth has a way of changing people’s plans.

Grief is not as heavy as guilt, but it takes more away from you.

I gasp, pressing both palms to my chest. Now the monstrous thing has its claws around my throat, squeezing my airway. I twist and put my head between my knees, breathing until the strangled feeling leaves me.

That’s what love does. When it’s right, it makes you more than you were, more than you thought you could be.

We are not people who touch each other carelessly; every point of contact between us feels important, a rush of energy and relief.

“Oh, you know,” I say. “Sun shining. Birds chirping.” She raises an eyebrow at me, as if reminding me that we are in an underground tunnel.

He is stronger than anyone I know, and warmer than anyone else realizes; he is a secret that I have kept, and will keep for the rest of my life.

Every faction conditions its members to think and act a certain way. And most people do it. For most people, it’s not hard to learn, to find a pattern of thought that works and stay that way. But our minds move in a dozen different directions.

Sometimes drastic change requires drastic measures.

Sometimes crying or laughing are the only options left, and laughing feels better right now.

You don’t believe things because they make your life better, you believe them because they’re true.

I know exactly how we fit together, his arm around my waist, my hands on his chest, the pressure of his lips on mine. We have each other memorized.

Mom used to say that politeness is deception in pretty packaging

Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening.

It’s frightening when things you love appear suddenly changed from what you have always known.

I find George Bush and Dick Cheney frightening, Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft frightening.

Sometimes hope could be the most frightening thing in the world.

The solitude of writing is also quite frightening. It’s quite close to madness, one just disappears for a day and loses touch.

A lot of black guys always ask me, ‘Did Larry Bird really play that good?’ I said, ‘Larry Bird is so good it’s frightening.’

To others he taught non-duality, that some find profoundly frightening.

It’s frightening how much things change in seventy-one years.