Teachers wondered why I didn't speak up more in class. Why would I when I knew how precarious words could be, how betraying they were, how vulnerable they made you?

What was so miraculous about a relationship that was based more on my gratitude than on mutual self respect?

Adventure in life is good; consistency in coffee even better.

Hey, if it's a good philosophy, it works. Death is imminent. Live every day like it's your last.

There is a time to study a map passionately, obsessively. To see where you've gone, where others have gone before you. To commit to memory every obstacle, every danger. Shakespeare had a term for this obsession: mappery. But there is a time, too, when you say, come dragons. I challenge you to find me.

When the creative impulse sweeps over you, grab it. You grab it and honor it and use it, because momentum is a rare gift.

You raze the old to raise the new.