“There is nothing more touching to me then a family picture where everyone is trying to look his or her best, but you can see what a mess they all really are.”

“He leans over and takes her hand. With the other he touches her face. ‘You your best thing, Sethe. You are.’ His holding fingers are holding hers.

‘Me? Me?”

“Mitch…was the kind of man who added something to everything he touched and everyone he came in contact with. I was envious of his view on life. He saw it all as a big game, where the only way to win was to be good to other people, to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and like what you see.”

“Look. If I touch you with this hand, I can remember touching you, but I can't prove I ever did. If reality is nothing more than what is in our mind… then what is the difference between this world and a dream?”

“There's something else there as well, something entirely her own. An ability to look into the confusing mess of life and see things for what they are.”

“The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don't tell you what to see.”

“Instead of looking at fragments, try to see the whole picture.”

“A soul. A soul is nothing. Can you see it, smell it, touch it? No.”

“When I look at my old pictures, all I can see is what I used to be but am no longer. I think: What I can see is what I am not.”

“My notion about any artist is that we honor him best by reading him, by playing his music, by seeing his plays or by looking at his pictures. We don't need to fall all over ourselves with adjectives and epithets. Let's play him more.”