—I BET YOU’RE PROBABLY THINKING THAT IT’S CRAZY THAT I REMEMBER EVERY LITTLE DETAIL, BUT I DO.

…Sometimes it doesn’t seem like much when it’s more than anyone could really comprehend.

…I built my life out of what was left of me, on a map of an old horizon.

…God thinks you’re wonderful.  He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.

…The moon sings to me its familiar song.  I’ve almost got it memorized.

…It would be wonderful to beat time.  Sometimes I think I kind of do.

…Loving people, and telling them you do--while you can--that’s what’s most important.

…I’ve got no problem with pink.  Or blue, for that matter.

…My whole career, I’ve been a hired hand.  That’s actually not too shabby.

…“If you don’t have the gun, we ain’t talking.”

...I can get a little bull-headed when I want something really bad.

…We all want something beautiful.  Man, I wish I was beautiful.

…We all get lost sometimes.  It’s how we cope, and how we grow from that which matters.

…I fail and I fail, but then I get up, and I keep at it.

…What matters is figuring out what matters most, and, well, that’s not always so easy.

…Sometimes it’s best to admit you’re a silly boy.  Silly isn’t that bad, after all.

…I’m not that good at a lot of things that men are supposed to be good at.  My only tools are screwdrivers and hammers.  I still don’t know what a carburetor is.  Or an alternator.  Or a timing belt.  But I do like the sound of timing belt.  It could make for a good title, or a line in a poem.

…A vivid memory I have is getting drunk off of Jack Daniel’s when I was nine years old.  I danced a jig, or something like that, in front of corn rows, as well as my mother and the foreman she was having a fling with.  I’m pretty sure I was pretty embarrassing.  I’m pretty sure it was pretty tragic in all sorts of ways.

…The truth is, eventually, we run out of space.  It’s preordained.

…If it’s yours, you should take it, right?

…I never feel like I have enough authority to answer all the questions I’m asked.  Makes me look like I’m copping out, but I’m actually not.  I’m just waiting for permission when I probably shouldn’t be.

…As you probably know, I started picking fruit in summers, when I was nine.  It was a cash money gig.  Mom drove us at 4:30 am in the Plymouth station wagon.  You started picking early because, by noon or so, the temperatures would rise so high the fruit would split and smoosh if you picked any later.  Even back then, Mom deducted the cost of gas out of our earnings each day.  That taught me quite a few things.

…We placed our berry-stained bills in an envelope where my mother studiously added sums on the back flap.  I remember watching with delight as summer neared to a close and that envelope swelled with singles and fives.

…One late summer, for some odd reason, or because my brothers were doing it, I signed up for football training.  It cost $110, which was a fortune back then.  I recall handing the coach a stack of berry-stained bills.  He just smiled.  It took me a while to understand why.

…I am my own accomplice, aiding and abetting all the way.

…Sometimes, late at night, I can hear myself tell myself that I’m almost ready.

…“I’ve got two tickets to paradise.”  Not a lot of people can say that, but Eddie Money can.

…Time makes you bolder... Not always, but it sounds good enough in a song.

…Guns, pills and money.  What could go wrong there?

…It’s dangerous to speak and sigh.

…When you’re up this late it can be problematic, and yet the body is an amazing machine.

…You wanna talk about that guy?  Don’t get me started.

…When you’re a father, you have a front row seat to see wonder.

…Nobody I know likes patience, yet it’s more or less required most of the time.

…My best friend, not my father, taught me how to shave while we were in college.  It was gruesome.  I didn’t understand levity.  I pressed too hard (symbolism).  My whole face was a bloody mess afterward.  The second time, I was a lot better.  I let the blade glide.

…I’m pretty certain that the worst thing to happen to me hasn’t happened yet, and I’m grateful and a bit scared at the same time.

…Shouldn’t we all just be cremated?  I mean, let’s save some land.

…Jupiter has 67 moons.  Sixty-seven.  We have one, and yet I’m entirely enamored with it.

…A lot gets said in a hot tub.  The key is to listen carefully and read between the lines.

…Vices are merely crutches, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need them, that we don’t enjoy them.  

…Do you every wonder why you’re spending time reading these nonsensical scribbles?  You should.  I know I do.

…Maybe I’m not a broken toy after all.  Maybe I just have something different to offer.

…I’m going to be up a while, so you might want to hit the hay.

…Don’t give up on me just yet.

…Whoa.  What time is it?

…Here comes the sun.