There is no teacher more discriminating or transforming than loss. - Pat Conroy

Teaching is a record of failures. But the glory of teaching is in the attempt.

And in that instant was born the terrible awareness that life eventually broke every man, but in different ways and at different times.

I can't pass a bookstore without slipping inside, looking for the next book that will burn my hand when I touch its jacket, or hand me over a promissory note of such immense power that it contains the formula that will change everything about me.