We are all born like Catholics, aren't we—in limbo, without religion, until some figure introduces us to God?

Slice a pear and you will find that its flesh is incandescent white. It glows with inner light. Those who carry a knife and a pear are never afraid of the dark.

High calls low and low calls high. I tell you, if you were in such dire straits as I was, you too would elevate your thoughts. The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar.

In art, something comes of nothing. Out of the thin air and the ether, you create a story. And that is intensely satisfying.

The worst pair of opposites is boredom and terror. Sometimes your life is a pendulum swing from one to the other.

It's amazing how willpower can build walls.

For fear, real fear such as shakes you to your foundation, such as you feel when you are brought face to face with your mortal end, nestles in your memory like a gangrene: it seeks to rot everything, even the words with which to speak of it. So you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.