Something hidden. Go and find it.
Go, and look behind the Ranges--
Something lost behind the Ranges.
Lost and waiting for you ... Go!
-Rudyard Kipling

"Don't listen to those who say, 'It's not done that way.' Maybe it's not, but maybe you will. Don't listen to those who say, 'You're taking too big a chance.' Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor, and it would surely be rubbed out by today. Most importantly, don't listen when the little voice of fear inside of you rears its ugly head and says, 'They're all smarter than you out there. They're more talented, they're taller, blonder, prettier, luckier and have connections ...' I firmly believe that if you follow a path that interests you, not to the exclusion of love, sensitivity, and cooperation with others, but with the strength of conviction that you can move others by your own efforts, and do not make success or failure the criteria by which you live, the chances are you'll be a person worthy of your own respect."
-Neil Simon

"Write regularly, day in and day out, at whatever times of day you find that you write best. Don't wait till you feel you are in the mood."
-Arnold J. Toynbee

Six rules for effective communication
1. Think.
2. Discard bias.
3. Adapt for preconceptions.
4. Choose the words.
5. Select the messenger.
6. Then communicate.
-Andrew Heiskell

"Always leave them wanting more."
-George M Cohan

Dialogue on a porch swing during a summer night

"I think love is trust," he said, slowly. "It's falling off a cliff and knowing your lover will catch you. It's finally being safe." He looked at her. "We don't have that. You don't trust me. I don't trust you. I don't know what this is between us, but it's not love."

She stared back at him, thinking she should cry now, but her eyes were stubbornly dry. "I think that cliff thing you just said ... It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. If you jump off a cliff, you deserve to hit the bottom."

He looked away. The only sound was the slight creaking of the swing.

Favorite Recipe

Seven Can Soup

1 can of Southern Style Beans
2 cans of minestrone soup
1 can of Ro-Tel
1 can of Veg-All, drained
1 can of sweet corn, drained
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 pound of lean ground beef

Brown beef in large pot. Pour off fat. Empty all cans into large pot. Heat until simmering. Serve with cornbread. Serves four.

Most of us miss out on life's big prizes. The Pulitzer. The Nobel. Oscars. Emmys. But we're all eligible for life's small pleasures. A pat on the back. A kiss behind the ear. A four-pound bass. A full moon. An empty parking space. A crackling fire. A great meal. A glorious sunset. Don't fret about copping life's grand awards. Enjoy its tiny delights. There are plenty for all of us.
-Message from United Technologies

"Any poet, if he is to survive as a writer beyond his twenty-fifth year, must alter; he must seek new literary influences; he will have different opinions to express."
-T.S. Eliot

"Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact."
-William James

"Your task it is, amid confusion, rush, and noise, to grasp the lasting, calm and meaningful, and finding it anew, to hold and treasure it."
-Paul Hindemith

"I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. 'Never worry about your heart until it stops beating.'"
-E.B. White

"Find out what gave you the emotion, what the action was that gave you the excitement. Then write it down making it so clear that ... it can become a part of the experience of the person who reads it."
-Ernest Hemingway

"Write what you like; there is no other rule."
-O. Henry

"Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can."
-Danny Kaye

Awake and sing.
-Isaiah 26:19

"We must remember that the word 'decease' literally means an 'exodus' or 'going out.' And that's what death is--a departure, not to oblivion but to a new horizon. The Psalmist wrote not of disappearing into 'the valley of the shadow of death,' but going through it."
-Billy Graham

"Place yourself in the background. Write in a way that draws the reader's attention to the sense and substance of the writing, rather than to the mood and temper of the author."
-E.B. White

Hope to the end.
-1 Peter 1:13

"When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love."
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fight the good fight of faith.
-1 Timonthy 6:12

Favorite Recipe

Chicken with rice and tomatoes

1 pound of chicken breasts
1 cup of instant white rice
1 cup of instant brown rice
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 can of chicken broth
2 cans of whole tomatoes, drained of juice
2 tablespoons of minced garlic
3 tablespoons of chives
1 tablespoon of paprika

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken breasts. Cook for five minutes. Turn over. Add whole tomatoes, minced garlic and chives. Cook for additional five minutes, stirring occasionally. Make sure chicken is cooked white. Add broth and rice. Sprinkle paprika over mixture. Cook until boiling. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for additional 20 minutes or until rice has absorbed all the moisture. Serve with green salad. Serves four well.

"Oh, we all get run over--once in our lives. But one must pick oneself up again. And behave as if it were nothing."
-Henrik Ibsen

"The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
-Albert Einstein

"Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country."
-Anais Nin, The Diaries of Anaïs Nin

What power has love but forgiveness?
In other words
by its intervention
what has been done
can be undone.
What good is it otherwise?
-William Carlos Williams, Pictures from Brueghel

"Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again."
-Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings

"Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or doing it better."
-John Updike

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."
-John Wesley

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious."
-Albert Einstein

"The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper."
-Eden Phillpotts