I have a sofa on which I never nap, big windows with an ocean view that I rarely see because I keep the pleated shades down at all times while working. I know I'm a potential slacker, so I don't tempt myself.

Loss is the hardest thing, I said. But it's also the teacher that's the most difficult to ignore.

In this world only the paranoid survive.

I survive by finding the sweet spot between reason and unreason, between the rational and irrational.

When you have dogs, you witness their uncomplaining acceptance of suffering, their bright desire to make the most of life in spite of the limitations of age and disease, their calm awareness of the approaching end when their final hours come. They accept death with a grace that I hope I will one day be brave enough to muster.

Each reader needs to bring his or her own mind and heart to the text.

Books had shown me, however, that all people everywhere wanted their lives to have purpose and meaning. This longing was universal.