Life becomes a lot simpler for a creative person when he or she finds the routine that works best. ... get in the habit of going through the routine every day, and on some of those days, you're going to be lucky and have done some good work. ... Go to your study, close the door, invent your confidence.

We live on the leash of our senses. There is no way in which to understand the world without first detecting it through the radar-net of our senses.

Touch seems to be as essential as sunlight.

If we mammals don't get something to eat every day or two, our temperature drops, all our signs fall off, and we begin to starve. Living at biological red alert, it's not surprising how obsessed we are with food; I'm just amazed we don't pace and fret about it all the time.

Look in the mirror. The face that pins you with its double gaze reveals a chastening secret.

A life like an intricately woven basket, frayed, worn, broken, unraveled, reworked, reknit from many of its original pieces... Life can survive in the constant shadow of illness, and even rise to moments of rampant joy, but the shadow remains, and one has to make space for it.

Which is crueler, an old man's lost memories of a life lived, or a young man's lost memories of the life he meant to live?