Literature was the only religion her father practiced, when a book fell on the floor he kissed it, when he was done with a book he tried to give it away to someone who would love it.

People who want to find a place of rest, want to find an integrated personality, sense of self, want fewer fractures in their lives.

You only get to keep what you refuse to let go of.

Succotash my Balzac, dipshiitake.

Part of living your life is an awareness of the opportunities that can be missed and an awareness that time moves in one direction.

Cruelty depends on an understanding of cruelty, and the ability to choose against it. Or to choose to ignore it.

When we eat factory-farmed meat we live, literally, on tortured flesh. Increasingly, that tortured flesh is becoming our own.