I wanted to do everything once and for all and be through with it.

O love, how did you get here?

The claw of the magnolia, drunk on its own scents, asks nothing of life.

Winning or losing an argument, receiving an acceptance or rejection, is no proof of the validity or value of personal identity. One may be wrong, mistaken, or a poor craftsman, or just ignorant - but this is no indication of the true worth of one's total human identity: past, present and future!

I must say what I admire most is the person who masters an area of practical experience, and can teach me something. I mean, my local midwife has taught me how to keep bees. Well, she can't understand anything I write. And I find myself liking her, may I say, more than most poets. And among my friends I find people who know all about boats or know all about certain sports, or how to cut somebody open and remove an organ. I'm fascinated by this mastery of the practical.

I thought how strange it had never occurred to me before that I was only purely happy until I was nine years old.

Hour by hour, day by day, life becomes possible.