We should be careful of the insults we fling at others, lest they return and land at our feet, newly minted to apply to those who had first coined them.

Gracious acceptance is an art - an art which most never bother to cultivate. We think that we have to learn how to give, but we forget about accepting things, which can be much harder than giving.... Accepting another person's gift is allowing him to express his feelings for you.

We think the world is ours forever, but we are little more than squatters.

At night we are all strangers, even to ourselves.

I'm interested in character and dialogue and exchange of ideas.

There are old mycologists and there are bold mycologists, but there are no old, bold mycologists.

Regular maps have few surprises: their contour lines reveal where the Andes are, and are reasonably clear. More precious, though, are the unpublished maps we make ourselves, of our city, our place, our daily world, our life; those maps of our private world we use every day; here I was happy, in that place I left my coat behind after a party, that is where I met my love; I cried there once, I was heartsore; but felt better round the corner..., things of that sort, our personal memories, that make the private tapestry of our lives.