If, as Heraclitus suggests, god, like an oracle, neither "declares nor hides, but sets forth by signs, " then clearly I had better be scrying the signs.

I had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck.

I am a fugitive and a vagabond, a sojourner seeking signs.

At night on land migrating monarchs slumber on certain trees, hung in festoons with wings folded together, thick on the trees and shaggy as bearskin. [p. 244]

If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?" "No", said the priest, "not if you did not know." "Then why, " asked the Eskimo earnestly, "did you tell me?

The answer must be, I think, that the beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.

I smelled silt on the wind, turkey, laundry, leaves . . . my God what a world. There is no accounting for one second of it (267).

I want to climb up the blank blue dome as a man would storm the inside of a circus tent, wildly, dangling, and with a steel knife claw a rent in the top, peep, and, if I must, fall.

I was still ringing. I had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck.

Innocence is a better world.

When we lose our innocence - when we start feeling the weight of the atmosphere and learn that there's death in the pot - we take leave of our sense.

I had a lump in my throat the size of a bundt cake pan.

There is no love without kindness, there is no kindness without love.

Every global concern - economic, environmental or security-related - can be addressed more effectively when the U.S. and China work together.

No one can tell you what your life is goin to be, can they? No. It's never like what you expected. Quijada nodded. If people knew the story of their lives how many would then elect to live them?

Invariably, micromanaging results in four problems: deceit, disloyalty, conflict, and communication problems.

I have a new little stray dog that I've had for about a month now. His name is Mikey Mohawk - he's this little terrier with a natural Mohawk. My friend found him hit by a car on Pico Boulevard.

I took everything to a big matter.

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

Nobody is going to pour truth into your brain. It's something you have to find out for yourself.

I have this great fear of Mexico City. I won't go to Mexico City unless someone meets me at the airport and is with me. I just feel very vulnerable there.