And it can keep you as busy as anything else, and happier.

I love the line of Flaubert about observing things very intensely. I think our duty as writers begins not with our own feelings, but with the powers of observing.

Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.

I have a notion that if you are going to be spiritually curious, you better not get cluttered up with too many material things.

There is only one question: / how to love this world.

All culture developed as some wild, raw creature strived to live better and longer.

Along with the differences that abide in each of us, there is also in each of us a maverick, the darling stubborn one who won't listen, who insists, who chooses preference or the spirited guess over yardsticks or even history. I suspect this maverick is somewhat what the soul is, or at least that the soul lives close by and companionably with its agitating and inquiring force.