I can never see fashion models, lean angular cheeks, strutting hips and blooming hair, without thinking of the skulls at the catacombs in Lima, Peru.

I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of a last page.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.

Poetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own.

There is a place to stand where you can see so many lights you forget you are one of them.

... the real heroes of race and culture would always be the people who stepped out of their own line to make a larger circle.

You know, those of us who leave our homes in the morning and expect to find them there when we go back - it's hard for us to understand what the experience of a refugee might be like.

This is the world I want to live in. The shared world.

Being good felt like a heavy coat, so I took it off.

Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth.

Energy is everything. Rubbing happy and sad together creates energy.

The wastes of snow on the hill were ghostly in the moonlight. The stars were piercingly bright.

The Antichrist . . . will be the embodiment of evil, and will have great power to deceive those who choose to follow him.

While many of us never knew Ronald Reagan personally, we felt close to him because we shared his lighthearted sense of humor, admired his uncommon virtue, and were moved by his remarkable wisdom.

You must learn to wait properly.

For every mountain there is another one. The big question is if you reach the top of the mountain, what then? What do you do then? I suppose you die.

How do they taste? They taste like more.

If football players were armed with guns, there wouldn't be stadiums large enough to hold the crowds.

Art is like therapy; what comes up is what comes up. It may be dark, but that's what comes up. You may want to keep some of it in a drawer but never judge it.

In every attempt there are many obstacles to cope with, but gradually the path becomes smooth.

I had the insane misconception that I was ready to conquer the known universe with Tähtivaeltaja. No mercy!