I lived for two years in Odawara, a castle town an hour outside of Tokyo, near the sea. It's a beautiful place, and I drew on my experiences there when writing 'The Lake of Dreams.'

Photography is all about secrets... The secrets we all have and will never tell.

You can't spend the rest of your life tiptoeing around to try and avert disaster. It won't work. You'll just end up missing the life you have.

She didn't love him and he didn't love her; she was like an addiction, and what they were doing had a darkness to it, a weight.

Once, this whole world had been hidden beneath a shallow sea.

...and the distance between them, millimeters only, the space of a breath, opened up and deepened, became a cavern at whose edge he stood.

It wasn't right. He knew that, but it was like falling: once you started you couldn't stop until something stopped you.

Lately, the world felt fragile, like a blown egg, as if it might shatter beneath a careless touch.

You can't stop time. You can't capture light. You can only turn your face up and let it rain down.

A moment might be a thousand different things.

Music is like you touch the pulse of the world. Music is always happening, and sometimes you get to touch it for a while, and when you do you know that everything's connetcted to everything else.

How can a deer tell when a leaf falls silent in the forest? She hears it breathing differently.

Thrills are much more about anticipation than action. An unfired bullet is more dangerous than one that has already met its target.

A low-carbon, clean energy economy can be an engine of growth for decades to come.

What if there were no hypothetical situations?

Somehow, the love of the islands, like the love of a woman, just happens. One cannot determine in advance to love a particular woman, nor can one so determine to love Hawaii.

Do not be more devoted to your own brain than you are to the Bible.

I look for that stimulation constantly. I'm looking for inspiration and stimulation. Not bored with what we've done.

Our friends, the enemy.

Our troops are the best in the world. I have absolute confidence in the ability of the troops who are here, or additional troops, to do their part.

What is a business? It's simply an idea that makes someone else's life better