Out of the millions of people we live among, most of whom we habitually ignore and are ignored by in turn, there are always a few that hold hostage our capacity for happiness, whom we could recognize by their smell alone and whom we would rather die than be without.

It is perhaps when our lives are at their most problematic that we are likely to be most receptive to beautiful things.

There is always the option of being emotionally lazy, that is, of quoting.

Insomnia is a glamorous term for thoughts you forgot to have in the day.

We read the weird tales in newspapers to crowd out the even weirder stuff inside us.

We may not agree with what religions are trying to teach us, but we can admire the institutional way in which they're doing it.

Life gives us no such handy markers - a storm comes, and far from this being a harbinger of death and collapse, during its course a person discovers love and truth, beauty and happiness, the rain lashing at the windows all the while.