There's a widespread notion that children are open, that the truth about their inner selves just seeps out of them. That's all wrong. No one is more covert than a child, and no one has a greater need to be that way. It's a response to a world that's always using a can opener to open them up to see what's inside, wondering whether it ought to be replaced with a more useful sort of preserves.

..That's where we humans make a mistake. We don't see the utterly amazing when it comes to us disguised as the ordinary.

Grief is a gift, something you have to earn.

The problem with anger against God is that it's impossible to go higher in the system to complain.

The body's pain is so paper-thin and insignificant compared to that of the mind.

I don't fall in love anymore. Just like I don't get the mumps.

Confronted with people who have power, and who enjoy using it, I turn into a different person, a baser and meaner one.