A studio, like a poem, is an intimacy and a freedom you can look out from, into each part of your life and a little beyond.

You may do this, I tell you, it is permitted. Begin again the story of your life.

The heat of autumn is different from the heat of summer. One ripens apples, the other turns them to cider.

Zen pretty much comes down to three things -- everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.

How fragile we are, between the few good moments.

Habit, laziness, and fear conspire to keep us comfortably within the familiar.

How silently the heart pivots on its hinge.

Existence itself is nothing if not an amazement. Good poems restore amazement.

Something looks back from the trees, and knows me for who I am.

In sorrow, pretend to be fearless. In happiness, tremble.

You must try, the voice said, to become colder. I understood at once. It's like the bodies of gods: cast in bronze, braced in stone. Only something heartless could bear the full weight.

Every second counts

All the so-called “secrets of success” will not work unless you do.

True artistic expression lies in conveying emotion.

Dulwich College takes me back after seventy years: My Mum must have written one hell of a sick note!

Amanda Davis has a wicked and inspired imagination.

This is the curse of an evil deed, that it incites and must bring forth more evil.

We talk religion in a world that worships the bread but does not distribute it, that practices ritual rather than righteousness, that confesses but does not repent.

Ten million ignorances do not constitute one knowledge.

Horses are not for riding! They do not exist for riding! Horse riding is man's invention! It is the making up of human benefit!

There are several occasions in the course of any woman's day when, without question, screaming is the appropriate response.