To allow mystery, which is to say to yourself, 'There could be more...things we don't understand,' is not to damn knowledge....It is to permit yourself an extraordinary, freedom: someone else does not have to be wrong in order that you might be right...This tolerance for mystery invigorates the imagination; and it is the imagination that gives shape to the universe.

One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse.

You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.

It does not demean men to want to be what they imagine the wolf to be, but it does demean them to kill the animal for it.

When I sit at that typewriter, I have to be frightened of what I'm trying to do. I'm frightened by my own belief that I can actually get a story down on paper.

People think that if you've written a book and somebody's given you a pat on the back then, you know, it's all - you're all settled, you know? You're going to be fine. I know that if I'm not confused, and really afraid, my work isn't going to be any good.

The wolf exerts a powerful influence on the human imagination. It takes your stare and turns it back on you