You don't have a soul, so you can't be baptized. All animals are like that. I think it's unfair and sometimes I don't believe it. After all, what would heaven be without birds or dogs or horses? And...

Tam Lin says rabbits give up when they're caught by coyotes, Matt said after he'd calmed enough to trust his voice. He says they consent to die because they're animals and can't understand hope. Hit...

The other girls in the village never felt restless. Nhamo was like a pot of boiling water. 'I want... I want... ,' she whispered to herself, but she didn't know what she wanted and she had no idea how...

A little extra forgiveness never hurts," said Matt, quoting one of Celia's favorite sayings."

Most of all, it was the wild music that impressed Matt. It did the same thing that playing the piano had done when he was frightened and lonely. It took him into another world where only beauty...

Does is make the dragon happy?" Matt asked. "Does is make the dragon happy?" echoed Tam Lin. "Why, I never thought of that. I suppose it does. What other pleasure can a creature have whose life...

I don't mind," he whispered. "If I had a soul, I'd probably wind up in hell anyway.

Guardian angels guide the steps of idiots.

Patience and love can do anything.

Slow people are just paying close attention.

He has his good side and his bad side. Very dark indeed is his majesty when he wants to be. When he was young, he made a choice, like a tree does when it decides to grow one way or the other. He grew...

People's souls are like gardens. You can't turn your back on someone because his garden's full of weeds. You have to give him water and lots of sunshine.

I always say the truth is best even when we find it unpleasant. Any rat in a sewer can lie. It's how rats are. It's what makes them rats. But a human doesn't run and hide in dark places, because he's...

Ona protests, quietly, that she doesn't believe that at all. She doesn't believe in authority, period, because authority makes people cruel. Salome interrupts: The people with authority or the people...

Surely, she says, encouraging others to lie on our behalves must be a worse sin than lying ourselves.

No, no, said the librarian, forgiven for being alive, for being in the world. For the arrogance and the futility of remaining alive, the ridiculousness of it, the stench of it, the unreasonableness of...

I want her face to feel at home on an ancient coin, he said. I want her eyes to harm me.

Perhaps we need to know more specifically what we are fighting to achieve {not only what we are fighting to destroy}, and what actions would be required for such an achievement, even after the fight...

Listen, I said, I don't think you understand. I don't want to be presumptuous, but really how could you understand what another person's suicide means? My friend asked the waitress for more coffee. I...

The truth is, I don't have a catchy method of conversing and yet unfortunately suffer of a minute to minute basis the agony of the unexpressed thought.

But what is the bedrock of civilized society? Libraries, said Elf.

When she looked at me she saw a child surrounded by flames, screaming. And that must have been hard for her.

Tash had warned me about running. It's for idiots and children.

the idea of "working well" was a relative one for us and that in the context of our present lives my mother was right, it was absolutely fine, no problem.

I could see my mother's beater Chevy way down below in the parking lot and I pushed the green button on her automatic starter to see how far away I could be from something to make it come to life....

The city was spread out in the soft darkness, calm after the big thunder and hail storm, still moist and warm like a woman very satisfied in love.

Shoo the sparrow away and get on with supper. This is the first part of my new life strategy.

I said. I'm a maid. I'm a dancer, she said. She stuck her elbows out and snapped her fingers. Well, I said. I get paid. Well, she said. I get applause. Well, I said. I get paid and with that money I...

I feel safe in the car, alone and protected. I can see people milling about in the parking lot but they can't see me. Well, they can but they think I'm insane so they look away which is the same as...

People here just can't wait to die, it seems. It's the main event. The only reason we're not all snuffed at birth is because that would reduce our suffering by a lifetime.