I didn’t care anymore what my ancestors would think. We were the Red Army and needed to eat.
At this point there were good days, good weeks, when we pretended that it was acceptable that Jack had lived at all, that his life had been, in its truncated way, complete. This wasn’t one of those days.
We discuss calling the police. We have to quickly review anything that could go wrong if we do. Are our immigration papers in order? They are. Do we have outstanding parking tickets? I have three, Achor Achor two. We calculate whether or not we have enough in checking accounts to pay the tickets if the police demand it. We decide that we do.
The last step was convincing the customer to pay for it. A customer accustomed to a two-dollar cup of coffee will startle at the idea of paying five dollars for a cup of direct-trade Ethiopian coffee. But if the customer knows that five dollars is the actual price that cup of coffee should be – the correct price to ensure that everyone involved in bringing that cup of coffee into existence is being treated humanely and given a chance to live with dignity – would that customer balk or step up?
Hand and I needed pants, pants to end all pants – warm and cool, breathing and trapping in, full of pockets.
He’s turned inside out, and is with the Sudanese to find out how to become right again.
It was a sad place, especially after a day at the Circle, where all was made with care and love and the gift of a good eye.
If you believe there’s only one path to God, then you’re limiting God.
Courage was the beginning, being unafraid, moving ahead, through small hardships, not turning back. Courage was simply a form of moving forward.
Running a business murders your ability to be the kind of friend people expect or deserve. Days and weeks go by and there can be no keeping up. Her best friends were her oldest friends, who did not expect constant contact. Everyone else was disappointed.
Revelation is everything, not for its own sake, because most self-revelation is just garbage – oop! – yes, but we have to purge the garbage, toss it out, throw it into a bunker and burn it, because it is fuel.
That is when the commitment to change would be put to the test: when the cameras are gone and the reporters are gone and the glamour disappears and the tedium sets in – the crushing tedium. That is when you realize, in your solitary moments, how much of your life you will have to sacrifice to change the world.
The only explanation was that she was receiving instructions from extraplanetary overlords.
We gravitate toward comfort, Josie thought, but it must be rationed. Give us one-third comfort and two-thirds chaos – that is balance.
Now create in your mind the best of days, and memorize these details, place this day center in your mind, and when you are the most frightened, bring forth this day and place yourself within it.
There’s less need to slowly acclimate these guys to the tank,” Bailey said. “They’ll be food pretty soon, so their happiness is less important than the shark’s.
There were twenty-five million people in Yemen and at least thirteen million guns – after the United States, it was, per capita the world’s most armed nation. Men wore AKs walking down the sreet. They brought them to weddings.
Everyone will be tracked, cradle to grave, with no possibility of escape.
A circle is the strongest shape in the universe. Nothing can beat it, nothing can improve upon it, nothing can be more perfect.
His frustration with some Americans was like that of a disappointed parent. He was so content in this country, so impressed with and loving of its opportunities, but then why, sometimes, did Americans fall short of their best selves?