I paint the ocean - I think of its vastness - its power - its wetness.

I paint a tree - I think of how the roots go deep, deep into the earth. How the tree grows year by year toward the sky. How it stands with the winds.

I paint the fog - I think of its fresh moistness - its stillness - its mystery.

I am the thing that I am painting at the time of painting.

I paint a mountain - I think of its age - the strata formations or what grows on the mountain.

If the Gods give up on you, will you continue?

I expect that any day now, I will have said all I have to say; I'll have used up all my characters, and then I'll be free to get on with my real life.

No rich man is a patriot, no rich man is a friend. They have all only got one fatherland the Ritz-Carlton; and one friend the mistress they're promising to divorce their wives for.

Niceness is a decision, a strategy of social interaction; it is not a character trait.

I do not know but thoughts written down thus in a journal might be printed in the same form with greater advantage than if the related ones were brought together into separate essays.

The more government dependents, the more likely that democracy will become a conspiracy against self-reliance.

As soon as you willfully allow a dialogue with temptation to begin, the soul is robbed of peace, just as consent to impurity destroys grace.

We are not social workers. We are contemplatives in the heart of the world.

It's really easy to get PR with no results & it actually feels like you're really actually cool, but in a year you'll still have nothing.

You are who you are by virtue of the company you keep.