Night had fallen, and Diane admired the deep sky behind Steve’s calm countenance. They looked into each other’s eyes again and felt the spark and excitement of discovery. As if to celebrate the perfect, life-enabling...

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” (Edmund Burke)

Check my riddle, and I’ll let you play my fiddle.

Well, on some level, it’s similar to the psychological phenomenon of helplessness, where the will to try is lost. You get to the point where you just assume that your spontaneous call to a friend...

Every human relationship begins with a coincidence. Even the most fundamental relationship – that of parent and child – begins entirely with a coincidence. The child is produced by whatever serendipity brought its parents together,...

I’m not sure. But – unless I’m struggling with the darkness within – I like to sustain the illusion that death is actually much further from me than it really is.

Having had virtually no contact with the outside world for the last few weeks, Evan had temporarily forgotten the social norms governing shopping conduct or approaching celebrities in public.

The unlikely group that resulted from the union of five diverse characters in their late twenties operated with surprising harmony. This cohesiveness could be attributed to two factors: 1) everyone’s issues and embarrassing pasts were...

Aren’t 3,000 lives worth a miracle to a good and all-powerful god?

Don’t invite envy to your house – you never know who will show up,” she used to warn me.

Let the park live in you until it sings you a song.

Of course I do. But I always feel guilty when that happens. After all, my journal is the oldest and most loyal friend I have. And it never interrupts me when I’m speaking,” he added,...

Hard,” she replied.

At one point, I began to think that I had a divine doorman. Lenny was the most unlikely incarnation of God I could imagine, and yet, I kept drifting irresistibly towards this absurd conclusion. Despite...

ERIC: What are you always writin’ in that book anyway?RODNEY: Poetry.TYRONE: Poetry?Rodney stops sketching and sentimentally flips through a few dozen pages of sketches and handwritten poems and notes.RODNEY: Poetry and pictures. Snapshots of our...

Compartmentalization is an unconscious psychological defense mechanism employed to avoid cognitive dissonance.

They truly embodied goodness and generosity – like angels sent to save me in my hour of greatest need. Mohammed had risked everything to keep a promise to my father. He and his family saved...

penilosophy.

I had always been an atheist until I met Lenny. He was too wonderously complex and good for there to be no benevolent and intelligent force behind our marvelous cosmos. Lenny gave me the actual...

Yeah, the execution

I kept returning to this new and bizarre question: is there anything that actually is as it seems? Is anything perceptually straightforward? Maybe that’s inherently impossible, because impressions are, by their very nature, cumulative –...

And you can do far more for us from America than you can from here, where you’re just another defenseless Christian. So if you really want to help, Inas, then you’ll go to the very...

So…Now that we got that over with, let’s get back to love at first sight, Evan said. Not infatuation at first sight…Love. With a capital L, he clarified.Love? Heeb asked, playfully pretending not to know...

Oh no. I’m not gonna let you leave yet. I’m gonna show you the value of takin’ your time to get to work. I probably should have done this a long time ago.

Well why don’t you lean over this counter a little more and give me your best kiss, and then I’ll tell you if I want you to take me out to dinner.

So our narcissism has bared forth an unflattering nakedness that shames our species. But this is humanity. This is our condition.

With the music of our singing in the background, I looked at the church candles and thought about the surreal connection between images and memory. The peaceful and joyous candles flickering there during the Christmas...

I want to feel like I’m making a difference in this world. And I want some time for living rather than just working. Life is for living, isn’t it? It can’t be all just for...

But the fantasy kingdom and trappings of success soon lost their luster, as I discovered that the most prestigious and remunerative of my resume’s way stations was also the most tedious and unfulfilling I had...

Paradoxically, the more Michael kept me at a distance, the more I trusted him – perhaps because he was always willing to help me with tips and introductions even though he wanted absolutely nothing from...

Dating someone exclusively for four months in New York is like four years in Anchorage.

There’s no savior here. Especially not at 1:15 a.m.

So if you choose me, then you have declared me more special to you than anyone else, because only one man can have that honor.

Have you ever experienced a beauty of soul, an esthetic grace, that was so intense it made you want to cry?”From Central Park Song ( A Screenplay )

It’s bewildering to me how you can just start chatting with a complete stranger on Facebook, and – next thing you know – it seems as if there’s some intense connection with the person –...

That figures. Finally applying your actuarial skills to what really matters, eh?

Honest dishonesty. That’s quite the oxymoron – but I like the originality that you’ve brought to bear in the art of rationalization. Maybe you should consider becoming a lawyer,” he added jokingly.

We pick the people who populate our personal lives as much for who they make us as for who they are. I chose Anna for the person I became in her presence, and in this...

When you look for beauty, you usually end up finding it.From Central Park Song (A Screenplay)

That could also be because at one point during the film, our hands found each other. And when I felt Michael’s middle finger caress the inside of my palm, it sent a tickle up my...

Sometimes violence is necessary to prevent even more violence,” I concluded, almost as if it were an epiphany.

You and your siblings are the most precious part of my life. And of all my children, you have the most potential to go anywhere you wish in this world – your test scores and...

Isn’t it better just to make your own money, and then spend it how and when you want, and with dignity?

Summer sticks to her skirt sumptuously, in the shiny gray fabric hanging loosely from her curves. Her chestnut eyes, apparently hidden from strangers; her simple but graceful face, unpainted by Madison Avenue; and her straight...

Steve’s throat swelled with tension as the intimacy of the moment became more tangible. He moved his eyes from the dark, reflective river, to the dark, reflective pupils in Diane’s eyes. They seemed to quiver...

It will all work out, Inas. You come from a long line of survivors and strong women. So everything will be fine in the end. And we are always with you in spirit, to guide...

So your theory would seem to be that lying to yourself is no lie at all because you haven’t deceived any third party. And if you then convince yourself of those lies, you’ll believe them...

But despite these and many other differences, Evan and Heeb had become close friends – an improbability that could have been produced only by the even greater improbabilities that brought them together.

People should think that being a writer is cool. Even if you’re just a starving writer. Besides, most great writers were starving at one point or another. It comes with the title.

Yeah. Isn’t it great?