Cheryl Strayed reminds us, in her lyrical and courageous memoir Wild, of what it means to be fully alive, even in the face of catastrophe, physical and psychic hardship, and loss.

Some of my old memories feel trapped in amber in my brain, lucid and burning, while others are like the wing beat of a hummingbird, an intangible, ephemeral blur.

We children of schizophrenics are the great secret keepers, the ones who don't want you to think that anything is wrong.

We humans are different - our brains are built not to fix memories in stone but rather to transform them, our recollections in their retelling.

I felt held hostage by her illness and by the backward mental health system that once again was incapable of helping our family in crisis.

Who am I, then, if my memory is impaired?

I don't want to be the person who gasps in fear whenever she hears the sound of a doorbell or a phone. I just want to lose myself in these hills, in the river winding west to the city of bridges.

We humans are different--our brains are built not to fix memories in stone but rather to transform them. Our recollections change in their retelling.

Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel says we are who we are because of what we learn and what we remember. Who am I, then, if my memory is impaired?

But one learns from books and reels only that certain things can be done. Actual learning requires that you do those things.

A five-word sentence that could change the world tomorrow is "What would love do now?"

the biggest ever scientific fraud

My life is like a stroll upon the beach.

The earth which sustains humanity must not be injured. It must not be destroyed!

Do not get angry because others question what you believe, be calm and loving, for anger is the root of a faulty belief.

Illusion never changed into something real.

That's what I want as a reader - I want to be confident that the book will do its job.

There is no amount of money in the world that will make you comfortable if you are not comfortable with yourself.

Hope is a pocket of possibility. I'm holding it in my hand.