So we make stories of our own, in fevered and envious imitation of our Maker, hoping that we'll tell, by chance, what God left untold. And finishing our tale, come to understand why we were born.

I haven't even had a life I could call my own, and you're ready to slot me into the grand design. Well, I don't think I want to go. I want to be my own design.

To you who have never died, may I say: Welcome to the world!

My father used to say: Every bird is one bird, and every book is one book, and every bird and every book is one thing too, under the words and the feathers." He finished with a flourish, as though the meaning of this was self-evident.

any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.

There are lives lived for love, and lives lived for art. We, happy band, have chosen the later persuasion.

If you want to look like the people next door, you're probably smothering yourself into your dreams.