Steven

“Story-telling is pivotal to our well-being, as are nonethnic jokes and riddles.”
― David Sedaris, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary

“Invoking John Winthrop, Reagan said, “I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it.” It was a free, proud city, built on a strong foundation, full of commerce and creativity, he said, adding, “If there had to be city walls, the walls had doors, and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.” Whatever his faults, Ronald Reagan believed in the possibilities of a country that was forever reinventing itself. “And how stands the city on this winter night?” Reagan asked. “More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago…. And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.”
― Jon Meacham, Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest, and the Music That Made a Nation

“he’d have to improve significantly to achieve mediocrity.”
― Richard Russo, Chances Are . . .

“As he spoke of their childhood days Judah sat up to press the back of his hand to his mouth and say she was as real to me as hunger or fear and I think I was born with her in my mind.”
― Michael Farris Smith