When pieces of work speak to us in a way that feels as if they were made just for us, those become our private worlds that we return to.

If you don't educate people well, then you're going to have a lot of violent, angry young men and women. You can go around saying they're all so violent, just throw them in jail, this is an underclass, what can you do? You can create fear. The issue of violence is very suitable for a repressive society. Then you can have more legislation, more police, more laws to fight crime, when all you need to do is to encourage people in a different way.

I'm always nervous about going home, just as I am nervous about rereading books that have meant a lot to me.

In the heat of her hands I thought, This is the campfire that mocks the sun.

I think every work of art is an act of faith, or we wouldn't bother to do it. It is a message in a bottle, a shout in the dark. It's saying, 'I'm here and I believe that you are somewhere and that you will answer if necessary across time, not necessarily in my lifetime.'

I don't want to eke out my life like a resource in short supply. The only selfish life is a timid one. To hold back, to withdraw, to keep the best in reserve, both overvalues the self, and undervalues what the self is.

The journey is not linear, it is always back and forth, denying the calendar, the wrinkles and lines of the body.