Since I have no words of my own. . .
"Being ill when you are a child or growing up is such an enchanted interlude! The outside world, the world of free time in the yard or the garden or on the street, is only a distant murmur in the sickroom. Inside, a whole world of characters and stories proliferates out of the books you read. The fever that weakens your perception as it sharpens your imagination turns the sickroom into someplace new, both familiar and strange; monsters come grinning out of the patterns on the curtains and the carpet, and chairs, tables, bookcases, and wardrobes burst out of buildings and ships you can almost touch although they are far away. Through the long hours of the night you have the church clock for company and the rumble of the occasional passing car that throws its headlights on the walls and ceiling. These are hours without sleep, which is not to say that they're sleepless, because on the contrary, they're not about lack of anything, they're rich and full. Desires, memories, fears, and passions for labyrinths in which we lose and find and then lose ourselves again. They are hours when anything is possible, good or bad."
- Bernhard Schlink The Reader
"As for mixing politics with Parkinson's, if I'm going to mumble the mumble, I've got to stumble the stumble."
-Michael J. Fox Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist
"The bottom line was, the bill would pass easily. We needed a 2/3 margin. And even with an encouraging number of Republican voters, we wouldn't cross that threshold. And then, sure as a Vineyard gull will shit on a shiny new car, the President would veto it."
- Ibid
"Listening to people who spouts beliefs different from mine is informative, not threatening, because the only thing that can alter my world view is a new and undeniable truth, and contrary to what Jack Nicholson says in A Few Good Men, I can handle the truth."
- Ibid
"'The opposite of fear is faith' is an adage I heard often when I quit drinking. The thinking is that fear is paralyzing and regressive, causing you to retreat into fantasy, while faith inspires forward progress. So, why, I always wondered, does fear feature so prominently in our discussions and practice of faith?"
- Ibid
"He's an African-American; I'm whiter than Wonder Bread."
- Ibid
"People ask me the secret to a long and happy marriage, just as they ask me the key to raising children. My flip answer in the kid department is 'Love 'em, feed 'em, and keep 'em out of traffic.' As for marriage, I often reply with equal brevity, 'Keep the fights clean and the sex dirty.'"
-Ibid
"If all the risks are removed from a child's environment, the child will be doomed to a life of playing it safe."
-Ibid
- Bernhard Schlink The Reader
"As for mixing politics with Parkinson's, if I'm going to mumble the mumble, I've got to stumble the stumble."
-Michael J. Fox Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist
"The bottom line was, the bill would pass easily. We needed a 2/3 margin. And even with an encouraging number of Republican voters, we wouldn't cross that threshold. And then, sure as a Vineyard gull will shit on a shiny new car, the President would veto it."
- Ibid
"Listening to people who spouts beliefs different from mine is informative, not threatening, because the only thing that can alter my world view is a new and undeniable truth, and contrary to what Jack Nicholson says in A Few Good Men, I can handle the truth."
- Ibid
"'The opposite of fear is faith' is an adage I heard often when I quit drinking. The thinking is that fear is paralyzing and regressive, causing you to retreat into fantasy, while faith inspires forward progress. So, why, I always wondered, does fear feature so prominently in our discussions and practice of faith?"
- Ibid
"He's an African-American; I'm whiter than Wonder Bread."
- Ibid
"People ask me the secret to a long and happy marriage, just as they ask me the key to raising children. My flip answer in the kid department is 'Love 'em, feed 'em, and keep 'em out of traffic.' As for marriage, I often reply with equal brevity, 'Keep the fights clean and the sex dirty.'"
-Ibid
"If all the risks are removed from a child's environment, the child will be doomed to a life of playing it safe."
-Ibid