It was hard to reassure grown-ups when you weren't certain yourself what you were feeling and thinking—when thoughts dissolved before you could name them.

When you read to a child, when you put a book in a child's hands, you are bringing that child news of the infinitely varied nature of life. You are an awakener.

A good novel begins with a small question and ends with a bigger one.

The minute you become conscious that you are doing good, that's the minute you have to stop because from then on it's wrong.

To be human is to be in a story.

Families hold each other in an iron grip of definition. One must break the grip, somehow.

The language of labels is like paper money, issued irresponsibly, with nothing of intrinsic value behind it, that is, with no effort of the intelligence to see, to really apprehend.

Literature is the province of imagination, and stories, in whatever guise, are meditations on life.

People steal into one's consciousness and occupy what seems, in retrospect, to have been their place all along.

I was the goldfish that leapt out of the bowl.

Life is all getting used to what you're not used to.

The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future. In truth, all sensation is already memory.

When fate hands us a lemon, let's try to make lemonade.

I shall never forget you. I have never forgotten anyone whom I once knew. My life has never been crowded, and seems not likely to be so.

When the government makes loans or subsidies to business, what it does is to tax successful private business in order to support unsuccessful private business.

PIE, n. An advance agent of the reaper whose name is Indigestion.

I personally feel like black people in America have contributed so much for so long, and haven't always gotten credit for it.

Yes, for me audio-visual performance has its roots in my experience working as an improvising musician and composer.

Some people, their whole lives, are just injustice collectors. They’re going to find new injustices every day. That’s what they do, and that’s what they are.

Part of being a sentient human is the ability to anticipate others' mental states - to say "Fred's going to hate this but Jane would love it."

The longer you wait to launch an innovation, the less your effort is worth.