Mortality means you don't have forever to work things out. You can live your life unexamined but then on the last day you're going to think: 'I've left things a little late.'

Whenever you have two characters in a book, whether it's a novel or nonfiction, you run the risk that the reader is going to like one more than the other. They're going to read one chapter and say, 'I can't wait to get back to the other guy.'

Sentiment is wherever you go.

People are only mean when they're threatened, and that's what our culture does. That's what our economy does.

You can feel the whole world and still feel lost in it. So many people are in pain – no matter how smart or accomplished – they cry, they yearn, they hurt. But instead of looking down on things, they look up, which is where I should have been looking, too. Because when the world quiets to the sound of your own breathing, we all want the same things: comfort, love and a peaceful heart.

You can feel the whole world and still feel lost in it. So many people are in pain – no matter how smart or accomplished – they cry, they yearn, they hurt. We all want the same things: comfort, love, and a peaceful heart.

Tell me about your family,” I said. And so she did. I listened intently as my mother went through each branch of the tree. Years later, after the funeral, Maria had asked me questions about the family – who was related to whom – and I struggled. I couldn’t remember. A big chunk of our history had been buried with my mother. You should never let your past disappear that way.

I know this sound; silence is part of music. But just because something is silent doesn’t mean you aren’t hearing it.

Dear friends. I’m dying. “Don’t be upset. I began to die on July 6, 1917. That’s the day I was born, and, in council with what our psalmist says, ‘We who are born, are born to die.

And, as is usually the fate with bands, most of them will break up – through distance, differences, divorce, or death.