"School improvement is not a mystery. Incremental, even dramatic improvement is not only possible but probable under the right conditions."

“There's a therapeutic aspect to all making, but the nature of working is to compress, condense, and shape stuff, not to just expunge it. It's not just an exorcism.”

“I seen her on the ave, spotted her more than once. Ass so fat that you could see it from the front...”

“All days are nights to see till I see thee, And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.”

“I don't think of my music as something that works well in the background. And because a lot of it isn't in 4/4, people might not like to dance to it.”

“Bet you ten bucks we make it." What are the odds? she thought, and realized with sudden, blinding clarity that she wouldn't take the other side of that bet, that only a loser would bet against them. This is really it, she thought, amazed. This is really forever. I believe in this. "Min?" he said, and she kissed him, putting all her heart into it. "No bet," she said against his mouth. "Your odds are too good." "Our odds are too good”

“I just keep thinking how lucky I am that I haven't had to sacrifice anything.”

“What makes my father different is the fact that he calls himself mad.”

“More and more, there were no revelations, but simply the uncovering of truths long known but dimly remembered. Everything had been written long ago. There was nothing truly new in the world, but only the slow, circular march of time that revealed the old things once again.”