Great books are the ones that are urgent, life-changing, the ones that crack open the reader’s skull and heart.

I remember thinking how easy it is to speak in clichés, to steal a line from pulp fiction and let it fall. We can only hover around the inexpressible with our words anyway, and there is comfort in saying what we have heard before.

I've always thought of wholeness and integration as necessary myths. We're gragmented beings who cement ourselves together, but there are always cracks. Living with the cracks is part of being, well, reasonably healthy.

Every painting is always two paintings: The one you see, and the one you remember.

It is fascinating to me that when the lists of the great writers are trotted out year after year, you often find lists without a single woman mentioned.

Demonstration of mastery gives a feeling of power and that feeling of power is a good feeling.

We chart delusions through collective agreement.