Talent consists not in inventing shapes but in causing those that were invisible to emerge.

If, in our world, there is any chance of becoming the person you haven't yet become...will I know how to seize that chance, turn my life into a garden that will be completely different from my forebears'?

When tea becomes ritual, it takes place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things.

Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty.

... they have never seen you ... I would recognize you anywhere.

'Life has meaning and we grown-ups know what it is' is the universal lie that everyone is supposed to believe. Once you become an adult and you realize that's not true, it's too late.

In our world, that's the way you live your grown-up life: you must constantly rebuild your identity as an adult, the way it's been put together it is wobbly, ephemeral, and fragile, it cloaks despair and, when you're alone in front of the mirror, it tells you the lies you need to believe.