Well, the truth is, if you really listen to that bird on your shoulder, if you accept that you can die at any time–then you might not be as ambitious as you are.

We have a sense that we should be like the mythical cowboy... able to take on and conquer anything and live in the world without the need for other people.

There is no experience like having children...If you want the experience of having complete responsibility for another human being, and to learn to love and bond in the deepest way, then you should have children.

It’s natural to die. The fact that we make such a big hullabaloo over it is all because we don’t see ourselves as part of nature. We think because we’re human we’re something above nature.

What's wrong with being number two?

Are you trying to be as human as you can be?

Once you learn how to die you learn how to live.