Emerson, I am trying to live, as you said we must, the examined life. But there are days I wish there was less in my head to examine, not to speak of the busy heart.

it is a serious thing // just to be alive / on this fresh morning / in this broken world.

Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.

I don't ask for the sights in front of me to change, only the depth of my seeing.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began.

Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

In this universe we are given two gifts: the ability to love and the ability to question. Which are, at the same time, the fires that warm us and the fires that scorch us.

You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.

I say if a novelty Christmas song is funny one time, then it is funny every time. - Calvin

My secret friend, Oh, take me to the river.My secret friend, So we can swim forever.

I was uncomfortable writing fiction. My love was the personal essay rather than the novel.

A little threat of evil is always the far better way to fill the seats. But sometimes the monsters aren't who we think they are.

. . . escape is easier than change.

When I die, just keep playing the records.

I am reminded of the importance of small kindnesses.

My own father didn't talk a lot about feelings or emotions.

Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai Whose portals are alternate Night and Day, How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp Abode his destin'd Hour and went his way.

Some day man will travel at the speed of light, of small interest to those of us still trying to catch up to the speed of time.