Am I like the optimist who, while falling ten stories from a building, says at each story, I'm all right so far?

Islands are reminders of arrivals and departures.

The toughness I was learning was not a martyred doggedness, a dumb heroism, but the art of accommodation. I thought: to be tough is to be fragile; to be tender is to be truly fierce.

I like big, open, spare landscapes. There's lots of room. Nobody bothers you... I feel as if I can think there.

Honesty is stronger medicine than sympathy, which may console but often conceals.

Am I like the optimist who, while falling ten stories from a building, says at each story, I'm all right so far?

Survival is as much a matter of grace as fight. The expression, 'grace under pressure' implies the attainment of equanimity and equilibrium. The fundamental durability of the human body surprises us because the pain can be so intense - yet pain is often transient and hides the tremendous effforts the body is engaged in to heal itself.