“All that sadness. All that anger. It is the smoke that gets into your eyes. If you do not blow it away, how can you hope to see?”

“It was all right to be sad. It was all right to lament. It was all right to feel anger. But [is] not all right to run away.”

“All this is very good in theory, but in practice, you take a piece of iron, wind a wire around it, then plug the wire in. The core gets hot, the wires smoke, and the fuse blows. So you see, there are practical limitations to theory.”

“If you're in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark.”

“Some things take so long
But how do I explain
When not too many people
Can see we're all the same
And because of all their tears
Your eyes can't hope to see
The beauty that surrounds them
Now, isn't it a pity”

“Sometimes what you want is right in front of you. All you have to do is open your eyes and see it.”

“Dad, there's smoke coming out of the can and coming out of your mouth, too. How do you do that, daddy?”

“No matter how many times you get knocked down, keep getting back up. God sees your resolve. He sees your determination. And when you do everything you can do, that’s when God will step in and do what you can’t do.”

“How can you sleep
How can you turn away
Thinking so cheap?
Some day you're gonna pay!
You're keeping secrets
I can see in your eyes:
Can anybody tell me
Why the big disguise?”

“You can walk away from your mistakes
You can turn your back on what you do
Just a little smile is all it takes
And you can have your cake and eat it too.
Loneliness will get to you somehow
But ev'rybody loves you now.”