Though collecting quotations could be considered as merely an ironic mimetism

Growing older is mainly an ordeal of the imagination-a moral disease, a social pathology.

Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers.

Fear binds people together. And fear disperses them. Courage inspires communities: the courage of an example - for courage is as contagious as fear. But courage, certain kinds of courage, can also isolate the brave.

Nature in America has always been suspect, on the defensive, cannibalized by progress. In America, every specimen becomes a relic.

Writing is finally a series of permissions you give yourself to be expressive in certain ways. To leap. To fly. To fail.

Although none of the rules for becoming more alive is valid, it is healthy to keep on formulating them.