At present count, I have an eight page document of quotes. Both the famous and infamous have made their way on to my list. There are song lyrics and poems as well as your standard prose varieties. As I sit at my desk at work I am looking at my quote-a-day-calendar that I received as a gift, a very fitting gift. It is called Wild Words from Wild Women...how appropriate (thanks Ally!) I read one each day and keep the ones I think are great and tack them up on my wall. There is Maya Angelou (April 4th), bell hooks (February 22), and even the supreme diva herself, Barbra Streisand (April 24th--I'm not kidding guys, she is really in the calendar...and on her birthday!)

I am in awe of the magic power of quotes! I seek out and read new ones everyday, literally. I am constantly amazed at the vast power of small bits of phrases that people once uttered that are now part of the cultural consciousness. I can hear them in my head, I use them in my own writing, I tack them on to e-mail and I share them with friends who, in turn, share with me. Then suddenly we are all swimming in a sea of quotations of people we know and people we wish to know...that's amazing!

I hope someday to be quoted...and not just in the book of fun we keep at Bluestone, although I am ever grateful for my friends need to document the hillarious things we say after one too many martinis! But I hope to be quoted in a manner of seriousness. A quote worthy of starting a speech or being in a calander. A quote that people know because I did something amazing...memorable.

I'm still drafting one. So, until I get it just right, here's one of the many I have collected to keep you going from a man we all knew and loved, despite his little sweater...

"I feel the greatest gift we can give to anybody is the gift of our honest self."
--Mr. Rogers