What a large number of factors constitute a single human being! How very many layers we operate on, and how very many influences we receive from our minds, our bodies, our histories, our families, our cities, our souls and our lunches!

Zen masters say you cannot see your reflection in running water, only in still water.

I am the planet's most affectionate life-form, something like the cross between a golden retriever and a barnacle.

Your home is that thing to which you can dedicate your energies with such singular devotion that the ultimate results become inconsequential.

He was powerful and I died of love in his shadow.

The gods are fond of the cryptic and dislike the evident.

Someone asked me if I would like to write a man on death row, be a pen pal, and I was like, sure. I volunteered. I had been in a place in my life - a relationship had ended; my parents were getting elderly - I was kind of adrift. The name that was given to me, just randomly, was Todd Willingham. And he wrote me a letter, and in this letter, he thanked me for writing him and [said that] if I would like to visit, he would put me on his visitor list... I was just really struck by the letter from Todd. It was very polite; it was very kind.