Happiness is understanding that friendship is more precious than mere things more precious than getting your own way more precious than being in situations where true principles are not at stake.

They have the ability to take a person's freedom from them. On certain situations they have the ability to take a person's reputation. And under certain circumstances they have the authority to take a person's life.

Especially for me growing up in such a small town in the middle of nowhere the desire to be away was incredible. I wanted to see new lands meet new people from the city and meet people that were in much less fortunate situations than I was so that I could be more appreciative of my present. At least I had food on the table.

A fear of the unknown keeps a lot of people from leaving bad situations.

None of my characters are rich or famous and the situations they find themselves in could happen to anyone.

My encounters with racism are sort of second-hand situations where I might be standing around with a group of white friends and someone makes a comment that they wouldn't make at my family reunion.

Ultimately it's a leap of faith and a leap of imagination to put yourself back in time into those conditions and situations and see how you would react.

In a sense it might even be said that our failure is to form habits: for after all habit is relative to a stereotyped world and meantime it is only the roughness of the eye that makes two persons things situations seem alike.

Such happiness as life is capable of comes from the full participation of all our powers in the endeavor to wrest from each changing situations of experience its own full and unique meaning.

One of the things I've started doing lately is tracking my dreams. I feel like there's a lot of information there and you can really bring those emotions to the situations that may feel mundane or familiar. That gives them new life and gives you a new relationship with it - if that makes any sort of sense.