Any assault on the borders of perception is going to seem rash at first.

I like the construction of sentences and the juxtaposition of words-not just how they sound or what they mean, but even what they look like.

I think more than writers, the major influences on me have been European movies, jazz, and Abstract Expressionism.

We seem to believe it is possible to ward off death by following rules of good grooming.

As technology advances in complexity and scope, fear becomes more primitive.

No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die.

I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version.

I don’t want your candor. I want your soul in a silver thimble.

What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.

California deserves whatever it gets. Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom.

A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it.

Give away everything—even your heart, soul, and mind. Nothing is yours. Keep your experiences and your memories. Those are yours and they make you who you are.

My job was to fight evil, and my soul was my weapon.

We must learn from the sermons of Christ, the wisdom of Laotzu, the teachings of Buddha.

I just wouldn't have believed a ball could be hit that hard. I've never seen anything like it.

My husband was getting his sea legs-rereading Joseph Conrad with a side order of C S Forester.

In a malleable world where everything from atoms to cells is changing to match our beliefs, we're limited only by the way we think of ourselves in that world.

Well-developed faith results in well-defined prayers, and well-defined prayers result in a well-lived life.

I don't want an opportunity to go missing because of my lack of organization.

Don’t tell me you’re going to eat a mashed-potato sandwich