I refuse to cater to the bullshit of innocence.

A book is really like a lover. It arranges itself in your life in a way that is beautiful.

Why is my needle stuck in childhood? I don't know why. I guess it's because that's where my heart is.

We all want to be renewed, don't we?

I can't believe I've turned into a typical old man. I can't believe it. I was young just minutes ago.

Art has always been my salvation. And my gods are Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Mozart. I believe in them with all my heart. And when Mozart is playing in my room, I am in conjunction with something I can’t explain — I don’t need to. I know that if there’s a purpose for life, it was for me to hear Mozart. Or if I walk in the woods and I see an animal, the purpose of my life was to see that animal. I can recollect it, I can notice it. I’m here to take note of. And that is beyond my ego, beyond anything that belongs to me, an observer, an observer.

My father could be very witty, even if the humor was always on the darker side of irony.