My passport photo is one of the most remarkable photographs I have ever seen- no retouching, no shadows, no flattery-just stark me.

Fame separates you from life.

It is terribly amusing how many different climates of feelings one can go through in one day.

Can you write a book and have children at the same time? Yes, if you're content to do it very very slowly.

It is a difficult lesson to learn today-to leave one's friends and family and deliberately practice the art of solitude for an hour or a day or a week. And yet, once it is done, I find there is a quality to being alone that is incredibly precious. Life rushes back into the void, richer, more vivid, fuller than before.

I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable.

For sleep, one needs endless depths of blackness to sink into; daylight is too shallow, it will not cover one.