Books are the way the dead talk to the living.

It's a little hard to speak when you're not supposed to move.

You need to try to master the ability to feel sad without actually being sad.

You can do great things with low-tech stuff.

I didn't really understand that Vipassana is a relatively new form of Buddhism that was based on the storage of pain. So the idea is that every time you don't scream, that's your Buddhist side.

. . . I wrote a letter to Thomas Pynchon asking, Can I have your permission to try to make an [adaptation] of your book? And I had no idea that he would answer me, because he's pretty elusive. But he did send a letter back that said, Yes, you can do that - as long as the only instrument in the opera is a banjo. I thought, That's an interesting way of saying No.

I think a lot of people in Washington are extremely suspicious of NASA.