How we shape our understanding of others' lives is determined by what we find memorable in them, and that in turn is determined not by any potentially accurate overview of another's personality but rather by the tension and balance that exist in our daily relationships.

Christians, and some Jews, claim we're in the "end times," but they've been saying this off and on for more than two thousand years.

First I think I was interested in the stories, and later on, I became more interested in the language itself, so the stories became almost secondary, but it was kind of a background music for my life.

I like travelers, but I don't like tourists. The difference is that travelers don't shop and they don't play golf.

If little else, the brain is an educational toy. Why it may be a frustrating play thing - one whose finer points recede just when you think you are mastering them - it is nonetheless perpetually fascinating, frequently surprising, occasionally rewarding, and it comes already assembled. [...] Alas! the brain is a toy that plays games of its own. Its very most favorite game is the one-thing-leads-to-another game.

I mean that gods do not limit men. Men limit men.

Meditation... dissolves the mind. It erases itself. Throws the ego out on its big brittle ass.