Experiencing the present purely is being empty and hollow; you catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall.

What I call innocence is the spirit's unself-conscious state at any moment of pure devotion to any object. It is at once a receptiveness and total concentration.

There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by. A life of good days lived in the senses is not enough. The life of sensation is the life of greed; it requires more and more. The life of the spirit requires less and less; time is ample and its passage sweet. Who would call a day spent reading a good day? But a life spent reading -- that is a good life.

Trees have a curious relationship to the subject of the present moment. There are many created things in the universe that outlive us, that outlive the sun, even, but I can't think about them. I live with trees.

I know only enough of God to want to worship him, by any means ready to hand.

Art is like an ill-trained Labrador retriever that drags you out into traffic.

The extravagant gesture is the very stuff of creation.