We think we are unique, special and deserving of happiness, but we are terrified of being alone.

Of course we also live in a world of great beauty, sacrificial and passionate love, tenderness, prosperity, courage and joy. But quite a lot of all that seems to happen regardless of the paradigm and the high thoughts of philosophy. It has always happened. It is precisely because it has always happened that we go on wrestling with these issues in the hope that it can happen more often and for more people.

Art is an artificial organization of experience.

My father taught me to be independent and cocky and free thinking, but he could not stand it if I disagreed with him.

Another of the things I started to do during this time was what Buddhists normally call "meditation" or, in Christian terms, "contemplative prayer". It began to supersede deipnosophy as my favorite hobby.

Being alone in our present society raises an important question about identity and well-being.

Gardening gave me a way to work with silence; not "in silence" but "with silence" - it was a silent creativity.