Sculptors, poets, painters, musicians-they're the traditional purveyors of Beauty. But it can as easily be created by a gardener, a farmer, a plumber, a careworker.

One expected growth, change; without it, the world was less, the well of inspiration dried up, the muses fled.

You can't stand up to the night until you understand what's hiding in its shadows.

Life's an act of magic, too. Claire Hamill sings a line in one of her songs that really sums it up for me: 'If there's no magic, there's no meaning.' Without magic- or call it wonder, mystery, natural wisdom- nothing has any depth. It's all just surface. You know: what you see is what you get. I honestly believe there's more to everything than that, whether it's a Monet hanging in a gallery or some old vagrant sleeping in an alley.

There are people who take the heart out of you, and there are people who put it back.

There are as many stories to be told as there are people to tell them about; only the mean-spirited would consider there to be a competition at all.

The trouble with advice is that it's usually something you don't want to hear.