I often recall these words when I am writing, and I think to myself, “It’s true. There aren’t any new words. Our job is to give new meanings and special overtones to absolutely ordinary words.” I find the thought reassuring. It means that vast, unknown stretches still lie before us, fertile territories just waiting for us to cultivate them.

Maybe the star doesnt even exist any more.Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything.

You can keep as quiet as you like, but one of these days somebody is going to find you.

Most human activities are predicated on the assumption that life goes on. If you take that premise away, what is there left?

I laughed. “You’re too young to be so … pessimistic,” I said, using the English word. “Pessi-what?” “Pessimistic. It means looking only at the dark side of things.” “Pessimistic … pessimistic …” She repeated the English to herself over and over, and then she looked up at me with a fierce glare. “I’m only sixteen,” she said, “and I don’t know much about the world, but I do know one thing for sure. If I’m pessimistic, then the adults in this world who are not pessimistic are a bunch of idiots.

There are lots of things we never understand, no matter how many years we put on, no matter how much experience we accumulate.

Memories and thoughts age, just as people do. But certain thoughts can never age, and certain memories can never fade.