Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.

What geography can give all Middle Westerners, along with the fresh water and topsoil, if they let it, is awe for an Edenic continent stretching forever in all directions. Makes you religious. Takes your breath away.

It is just an illusion here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone, it is gone forever.

The primary benefit of practicing any art, whether well or badly, is that it enables one's soul to grow.

When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away - even if it's only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.

Pay no attention to Caesar. Caesar doesn't have the slightest idea what's really going on.

One might be led to suspect that there were all sorts of things going on in the Universe which he or she did not thoroughly understand.