“He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.”

Acts have their being in the witness. Without him who can speak of it? In the end one could even say that the act is nothing, the witness all.

Remember her hair in the morning before it was pinned, black, rampant, savage with loveliness. As if she slept in perpetual storm.

Men of God and men of war have strange affinities.

How surely are the dead beyond death. Death is what the living carry with them. A state of dread, like some uncanny foretaste of a bitter memory. But the dead do not remember and nothingness is not a curse. Far from it.

There is no God and we are his prophets.

There is no later. This is later.

The things I believed in dont exist any more. It’s foolish to pretend that they do. Western Civilization finally went up in smoke in the chimneys at Dachau but I was too infatuated to see it. I see it now.

Best way to live in California is to be from somewheres else.

The wind sounded of Mother Earth’s forsaken and abandoned cries.

They spoke less and less between them until at last they were silent altogether as is often the way with travelers approaching the end of a journey.

What he could bear in the waking world he could not by night and he sat awake for fear the dream would return.

You have to carry the fire.” I don’t know how to.” Yes, you do.” Is the fire real? The fire?” Yes it is.” Where is it? I don’t know where it is.” Yes you do. It’s inside you. It always was there. I can see it.

There is no such joy in the tavern as upon the road there to.

Anything that doesn’t take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.

We think we are the victims of time. In reality, the way of the world isn’t fixed anywhere. How could that be possible? We are our own journey. And therefore we are time as well. We are the same. Fugitive. Inscrutable. Ruthless.

The closest bonds we will ever know are bonds of grief. The deepest community one of sorrow.

Jill, we became parents so we could tell our kids what to do. Otherwise we’re just the tallest people living here.

Carrying a baby is the most rewarding experience a female can enjoy. A father shares in that experience, knowing that he caused it to happen.

Children are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they are going to catch you in next.

At age 11, I went to a Jewish school. I speak Yiddish. I’m Church of England Protestant. My father was Catholic, and my mother was Protestant. My wife is a Muslim.

It is not your fault for falling in love with the wrong person. It is easy to mistake familiarity for love, if the love you received as a child was flawed.

I wasn’t ever a huge fan of comics. Just not one of those kids, you know?

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn’t work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

My first job as a kid was going from door to door selling Christmas cards, to raise money for my grandmother’s hip replacement. Because, you know… You break it, you buy it.