From the fallen tree everybody makes firewood.

Misunderstanding is my cornerstone. It's everyone's, come to think of it. Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet.

God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves.

my own relationships with the animals in my life are absurdly complex: Some I love, some I eat, and the scraps left over from the ones I eat, I feed to the ones I love.

If I had to give up my life for anything, it would have to have the resilience of hope, the elation of new literacy, the brilliant life of a field of flowers, the elementary kindness of bread. Nothing short of that. It would have to be something as sure as love.

I don't understand how any good art could fail to be political.

I stir in bed and the memories rise out of me like a buzz of flies from a carcass. I crave to be rid of them.