I see the whole episode in my memory as if it were a very crisply photographed black and white movie. Directed by Bergman perhaps.We are playing ourselves in the movie version. If only we could escape from always having to play ourselves !

I am thinking of the onion again. . . . Not self-righteous like the proletarian potato, nor a siren like the apple. No show-off like the banana. But a modest, self-effacing vegetable, questioning, introspective, peeling itself away, or merely radiating halos like ripples.

I don't think that sex necessarily produces intimacy.

we all carry the Houses of our Youth inside, and our Parents, too, grown small enough to fit within our Hearts.

You're not too fat; you're just in the wrong country.

You must find the right voice (or voices) for the timbre that can convince a reader to give himself up to you.

I mostly hate organized religion, which I think is a force for the oppression of women and creates warfare.