It's such a foolish thing to argue about names, when what we're doing is all one thing.

Ramana Maharshi and Rumi would agree: the joy of being human is in uncovering the core we already are, the treasure buried in the ruin.

I think we all have a core that's ecstatic, that knows and that looks up in wonder. We all know that there are marvelous moments of eternity that just happen. We know them.

When you meet a new friend, the world has more light in it, doesn't it? Things become more spontaneous, and more full of laughing and freedom and novelty.

The religions of the world are luminous in their individuality, and they have valuable social and soulmaking functions. Surely someday we will quit killing each other over their different strategies.

Just being sentient and in a body with the sun coming up is a state of rapture.

Longing becomes more poignant if in the distance you can't tell whether your friend is going away or coming back. The pushing away pulls you in.

Anything you grab hold of on the bank breaks with the river's pressure. When you do things from your soul, the river itself moves through you. Freshness and a deep joy are signs of the current.

It's a beautiful lucid dream that has language that I can fiddle with.

There's some sort of exchange that goes on between human beings that is one of the highest things we do.

I had never heard of Rumi until Robert Bly handed me this book and he said, ah, “These poems need to be released from their cages.”

What’s writing really about? It’s about trying to take fuller possession of the reality of your life.

Being a human is a great power. One can obtain everything. However, it is the greed that harasses him.

There is nothing like race, is there?

One man's wage increase is another man's price increase.

All of my novels are democracies.

Similarly, only people as misanthropic as myself can be counted on not to have to lie to others, since we have the unique luxury of not caring what sort of opinions others formulate about us.

I'm not coming in to teach and play the big veteran guy. I'm coming in to win games.

When people say “clean as a whistle”, they forget that a whistle is full of spit.

All love shifts and changes.

The womb is like an altar, it's the place where God continually comes into the world and does what only God can do...create.