I couldn't decide what kind of person she was, whether she was one of those insects that look exactly like wasps but aren't . . . I just wanted to know if she would sting.

It never ceased to amaze me how she just had the facts always, in her head. It occured to me that if, or when, she died, a whole load of facts, a body of knowledge, might disappear without a trace.

The sharp, superficial pain at being spoken to unkindly had obscured the deeper pain, which had not yet turned into something hard and heavy.

Mizuko loved reading the dictionary. She liked it when there were multiple meanings for words and when opposite meanings could be contained.

Waking in the morning, I had to remember grief all over again. It was sunny, a white winter sun, and that made me sad.

Well, then, what's the plan now? You can't stay here forever.'My plan was indeed to stay there forever.

My ability to make up lies on the spot chills me as much as it saves me.

I felt the nauseous shiver in my stomach—everything from rage to empathy to morning sickness—that I had grown used to and now thought of as being love.

The messages must be stuck somewhere in the tube of light underneath the ocean that connects London and New York.

Email is the scourge of our age, ' said Silvia. 'Email and cancer.

I was on the sidewalk, buffering, wondering if it was okay to follow people in real life.

Sometimes the boxes we’re put in fit. Other times, we find ourselves shoved into places too confining for our growing sense of self.

Conversion is the lifelong process of turning away from our plans and turning toward God's maddening, disruptive, creativity.

Realize clarity from calamity.

I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find that we are turned to hating.

All societies on the verge of death are masculine. A society can survive with only one man; no society will survive a shortage of women.

The ridiculousness and idiocy of life is embraced and examined. It nurtures the childhood perspective in everyone.

I'm not an equipment nut. I tend to use whatever's at hand. I have several cameras, of course, but I'm not emotional about any of them

The way I dress and carry myself, a lot of people find it intimidating. I think my whole career can be boiled down to the one word I always say in meetings: strength.

I felt that America's duty was not to try to do everything itself, but to foster a sense of commitment that would bring out the best in every country.

And after a while, you just pare things down more and more and more, until you get to certain basic things which just - basic ideas which just seem to work for you over and over again.