Life on a lifeboat isn’t much of a life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with few pieces. The elements couldn’t be more simple, nor the stakes higher.

If you are pitched into misery, remember that your days on this earth are counted and you might as well make the best of those you have left.

My greatest wish - other than salvation - was to have a book.

Music is a bird's answer to the noise and heaviness of words. It puts the mind in a state of exhilarated speechlessness.

Even when God seemed to have abandoned me, he was watching. Even when he seemed indifferent to my suffering, he was watching. And when I was beyond all hope of saving, he gave me rest. Then he gave me a sign to continue my journey.

War subjects itself to transportation in a way that we find acceptable.

In my youth, it was my good luck to have a few good teachers, men and women, who came into my head and lit a match.