May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

Great art is never perfect; perfect art is never great.

My sole literary ambition is to write one good novel, then retire to my hut in the desert, assume the lotus position, compose my mind and senses, and sink into meditation, contemplating my novel.

All revolutions have failed? Perhaps. But rebellion for good cause is self- justifying -- a good in itself. Rebellion transforms slaves into human beings, if only for an hour.

The love of a man for his wife, his child, of the land where he lives and works, is for me the real meaning of mystical experience.

Each thing in its way, when true to its own character, is equally beautiful. (p 41)

The distrust of wit is the beginning of tyranny.