I like handling newborn animals. Fallen into life from an unmappable world, they are the ultimate immigrants, full of wonder and confusion.

Much of life becomes background, but it is the province of art to throw buckets of light into the shadows and make life new again.

Of all the errands life seems to be running, of all the mysteries that enchant us, love is my favorite

What an odd, ruminating, noisy, self-interrupting conversation we conduct with ourselves from birth to death.

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?

We tend to think of heroes only in terms of violent combat, whether it's against enemies or a natural disaster. But human beings also perform radical acts of compassion; we just don't talk about them, or we don't talk about them as much.

Words are small shapes in the gorgeous chaos of the world. ... they bring the world into focus, they corral ideas, they hone thoughts, they paint watercolors of perception.