Flowers that grow where old ones have withered serve to remind us that death will one day come to us all.

We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course.

After all, when a stone is dropped into a pond, the water continues quivering even after the stone has sunk to the bottom.

If you aren't the woman I think you are, then this isn't the world I thought it was.

The heart dies a slow death, shedding each hope like leaves until one day there are none. No hopes. Nothing remains.

I stumbled out into the courtyard to try to flee my misery, but of course we can never flee the misery that is within us.

When we fight upstream against a rocky undercurrent, every foothold takes on a kind of urgency.

Can't you see? Every step I have taken, since I was that child on the bridge, has been to bring myself closer to you.

And then I became aware of all the magnificent silk wrapped around my body, and had the feeling I might drown in beauty. At that moment, beauty itself struck me as a kind of painful melancholy.

At the temple there is a poem called "Loss" carved into the stone. It has three words, but the poet has scratched them out. You cannot read loss, only feel it.

Sometimes we get through adversity only by imagining what the world might be like if our dreams should ever come true.

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

It's just a horrible thing to keep saying to a woman, do you want a baby inside you? I mean, it's creepy.

Im one of the boys, no better than the last second violinist. Im just the lucky one to be standing in the center, telling them how to play.

The one snack I really love is YoCrunch yogurt. It's like an apple pie in a cup! You have your apples on the bottom, your yogurt in the middle, and piecrust crumbs on top.

My pictures really finish themselves.

For me, the magic of Hawaii comes from the stillness, the sea, the stars.

I've no desire to start a movement, to be the first name on an open petition, or to be the poster child for disgruntled writers.

The greatest masters are the greatest apprentices as well; they are not only greatest givers but also greatest takers.

So I started out for God knows where. I guess I'll know when I get there.

It would be more interesting to learn from children, than try to teach them how to behave, how to live and how to function.