Every life is complicated, every mind a kingdom of unmapped mysteries.

When it came to formal classes, I was a slacker. But I've always been a diligent autodidact and can teach myself virtually any subject if I have a serious interest in it.

I don't write a quick draft and then revise; instead, I work slowly page by page, revising and polishing.

The world needed a little Evil, so Good had something to compare itself to, but you couldn't let it think it had the right-of-way on the road and an invitation to dinner.

I've got a long list of books I wish I'd never written-and I've kept them all out of print for the past 20 years.

In each little life, we can see great truth and beauty, and in each little life we glimpse the way of all things in the universe. If we alow ourselves to be enchanted by the beauty of the ordinary, we begin to see that all things extraordinary.

Nothing is worse than being alone on the evening of the day when one's cow has exploded.