We sort of read two or three big newspapers but we don't get the flavor of the local events, the local news as much.

The body, the mind, and the spirit don't form a pyramid, they form a circle. Each of them runs into the other two. The body isn't below the mind and the spirit; from the point of view it's between them. if you reside too much in the mind, then you get too abstract and cut off from the world. You long for the spiritual life, but you can't get to it, and you fall into despair. The exercise of the senses frees you from abstraction and opens the way to transcendence.

Some people do wait their whole lives for something, and it's only when that thing arrives that they find out that they've been waiting rather than living.

With preference came point of view; with point of view, personality; with personality, uniqueness; with uniqueness, grief.

I was an only child. I've known only children. From this experience, I do believe that the children should outnumber the parents.

Somehow, knowing that Alzheimer's is coming mocks all one's aspirations - to tell stories, to think through certain issues as only a novel can do, to be recognised for one's accomplishments and hard work - in a way that old familiar death does not.

When people leave, they always seem to scoop themselves out of you.