It's a no-win argument - that business of what we're born with and what our environment does to us. And it's a boring argument, because it simplifies the mysteries that attend both our birth and our growth.

The first of my father's illusions was that bears could survive the life led by human beings; the second was that human beings could survive a life in hotels.

I do know where I'm going and it's just a matter of finding the language to get there.

. . .There are moments when time does stop. We must be alert enough to notice such moments . . .

Thus we try to keep our heroes alive; hence we remember them.

We don't always have a choice how we get to know one another. Sometimes, people fall into our lives cleanly--as if out of the sky, or as if there were a direct flight from Heaven to Earth--the same sudden way we lose people, who once seemed they would always be part of our lives

A personal injustice is stronger motivation than any instinct for philanthropy.