I was afraid I was goin to die and then I was afraid I wasnt.

He had divested himself of the little cloaked godlet and his other amulets in a place where they would not be found in his lifetime and he'd taken for talisman the simple human heart within him.

In every trade save war men of talent and vigor prosper. In war they die.

You say you can't? Then don't do it. That's all.

My perfect day is sitting in a room with some blank paper. That's heaven. That's gold, and anything else is just a waste of time.

No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.

He thought that in the history of the world it might even be that there was more punishment than crime but he took small comfort from it.