Solitude is the salt of personhood. It brings out the authentic flavor of every experience.

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.

we are never done with thinking about our parents, I suppose, and come to know them better long after they are dead than we ever did when they were alive.

A good marriage shuts out a very great deal.

Do I think there's life after death? No, I think my books are my life after death.

There is no doubt that solitude is a challenge and to maintain balance within it a precarious business. But I must not forget that, for me, being with people or even with one beloved person for any length of time without solitude is even worse. I lose my center. I feel dispersed, scattered, in pieces. I must have time alone in which to mull over my encounter, and to extract its juice, its essence, to understand what has really happened to me as a consequence of it.

I asked myself the question, 'What do you want of your life?' and I realized with a start of recognition and terror, 'Exactly what I have - but to be commensurate, to handle it all better.