He knew what he knew: that the real world was full of magic, so magical worlds could easily be real.

I had a very difficult relationship with my father, which ended up okay, but there were many difficult years.

I do think that there is such a thing as human nature, and that the things that we have in common are perhaps greater than the things that divide us.

In this world without quiet corners, there can be no easy escapes from history, from hullabaloo, from terrible, unquiet fuss.

If by some bizarre chance there turns out to be a god [...], I'm willing to bet he's an atheist too.

We are the storytelling animal.

Our human tragedy is that we are unable to comprehend our experience, it slips through our fingers, we can't hold on to it, and the more time passes, the harder it gets...My father said that the natural world gave us explanations to compensate for the meanings we could not grasp. The slant of the cold sunlight on a winter pine, the music of water, an oar cutting the lake and the flight of birds, the mountains' nobility , the silence of the silence. We are given life but must accept that it is unattainable and rejoice in what can be held in the eye, the memory, the mind.