I believe that organized religion is an ornament to the truth, and that aesthetics are part of its power.

I hated being depressed, but it was also in depression that I learned my own acreage, the full extent of my soul.

The tragedies that are being brought about vastly outweigh the benefits that are being achieved.

In these xenophobic times, when politicians are stoking everyone's anxiety about threats from abroad, I would argue that engaging with the rest of the world is not only a luxury, in the way that travel is, but actually a moral responsibility.

I tend to find the ecstasy hidden in ordinary joys, because I did not expect those joys to be ordinary to me.

Then I repeated these words to my spirits: 'Leave me be; give me peace; and let me do the work of my life. I will never forget you.' Something about that incantation was particularly appealing to me. 'I will never forget you'-- as though one had to address the pride of the spirits, as though one wanted them to feel good about being exorcised.

My parents deeply and truly loved each other, and if my mother hadn't died they would have been together forever. They were together for as much of forever as was given to them. They really loved my brother and me and were very good to us. It gave the model of how to have a happy marriage and family, but it also set the bar very high.