One of the greatest gifts we receive from dogs is the tenderness they evoke in us.

Everyone's a fascist these days, sweetie. The word has no power to sting anymore. The country has embraced all the fascist dictators we once shunned. Kissed and made up. It's respectable now. It's the true and preferred way.

Human beings, however, were different from apples and oranges: The flavor of the peel did not reliably predict the taste of the pulp.

At times like this, tears exorcise emotions that would otherwise haunt me and, by their haunting, embitter me.

Stormy Llewellyn didn't want a pedestal. She wanted only someone who would look her straight in the eyes and always tell her the truth.

Is this not pathetic, Odd, what some ill-educated fool has done? I take solace in reminding myself that ‘art is long and critics are the insects of a day.' Shakespeare? I asked. No. Randall Jarrell. A wonderful poet, now all but forgotten because modern universities teach nothing but self-esteem and toe-sucking.

Grief thrived in a quiet heart, and right now hers thundered with terror and revulsion.