I was already well schooled in looking away, the jungle-craft of gentility.

Nobody knows, nobody can ever know, not even in memory, because there are moments in time that are not knowable.

I could not persuade her that a place does not merely exist, that it has to be invented in one's imagination.

People like my grandmother, who have no home but in memory, learn to be very skilled in the art of recollection.

That unthinkable, adult truth: that need is not transitive, that one may need without oneself being needed.

Need is not transitive, one may need without oneself being needed.

It’s knowing what really matters, what it is you’re chasing – or avoiding – and what makes you feel alive that propels you into a place where your beautiful soul can shine.

History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.

For those who are ready the door to the deathless state is open. If you have ears give up the conditions that bind you and enter in.

I used to say: "Everything is Representation Theory". Now I say: "Nothing is Representation Theory".

But your mind is warped by an innate principle of general integrity, and, therefore, not accessible to the cool reasonings of family partiality, or a desire of revenge.

In the heat of her hands I thought, This is the campfire that mocks the sun.

The system he (President Hosni Mubarak) is recommending would make it virtually impossible for truly independent parties to participate. Sham democracy should be exposed for what it truly is.

You are not saved for the sole purpose of going to heaven; you are saved to finish your assignment on earth

Every time I do a gig, my goal is getting new fans.

Buechner uses words with such transformative power that any comment on them is like the moon palely reflecting the sun.