Life is absolutely, mysteriously beautiful.

There is nothing more lonely than a true artist.

Identity is your role in life, the part you play. Individuality is who you are, and who you are is revealed to you if you can get to complete presence.

Have some fun while you wait for the will of heaven.

Books are in the mind, Grandfather Alessandro said. Too many books and you forget your body is in the world.

God made man because he loves to hear stories, Alessandro said. That's a good story, huh?

Every time you hear a car alarm, Ruby said, another New Yorker has gone to hell.

I was wounded by a blow of love.

The crises of modern man are to a large extent religious ones, insofar as they are an awakening of his awareness to an absence of meaning.

If you wish to live, you must first attend your own funeral.

The first lesson is that you can't lose a war if you have command of the air, and you can't win a war if you haven't.

There are memories that time can't erase, Clarissa. Ask your friend, Magnus Bane, if you don't believe me. Forever does not make loss forgettable. Only bearable.

I was at the birth of my two girls.

I would rather raise certain topics and maybe let you ruminate on them. I'm not big on answering them.

Although it is the biggest time-waster in office life, you must never underrate the importance of the memo. You will be judged by the volume of your paper work.

Boys and girls, And women, that would groan to see a child Pull off an insect's leg, all read of war, The best amusement for our morning meal.

I had stepped into his arms, showing him my raw, broken heart.

I went to Princeton from Amherst, where I split my interests between mathematics and philosophy.