Jane Austen: Getting into her books is like getting in bed with a cadaver. Something vital is lacking; namely, life.

Though men now possess the power to dominate and exploit every corner of the natural world, nothing in that fact implies that they have the right or the need to do so.

It is not death or dying that is tragic, but rather to have existed without fully participating in life- that is the deepest personal tragedy.

Why can't we simply borrow what is useful to us from Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, especially Zen, as we borrow from Christianity, science, American Indian traditions and world literature in general, including philosophy, and let the rest go hang? Borrow what we need but rely principally upon our own senses, common sense and daily living experience.

Mexico: where life is cheap, death is rich, and the buzzards are never unhappy.

Life without music would be an intolerable insult.

I'm a humanist; I'd rather kill a man than a snake.