Looking at a cat, like looking at clouds or stars or the ocean, makes it difficult to believe there is nothing miraculous in this world.

Some animals are secretive; some are shy. A cat is private.

Stories should be natural as apples, brief as lust, long as a thought.

There's hardly anywhere in literature where you don't find a triangle.

Of mystery there is no end. Of clarity, there is precious little.

There is always something for which there is no accounting. Take, for example, the whole world.

I read assiduously. I kept in touch with my species.

The prose as such has to be singing the song the story is telling.

Is the story developing an attitude or victimized by it.

Self-confidence can be crippling.

I can only gesture at what makes a story good.

In the moment of making films, I want to share my observations of life, not of other films.

A war regarded as inevitable or even probable, and therefore much prepared for, has a very good chance of eventually being fought.

Si quelqu'un veut un mouton, c'est la preuve qu'il en existe un. (If somebody wants a sheep, that is a proof that one exists.)

You win games with your strengths, not your weaknesses.

In both Surfing the Himalayas and Snowboarding to Nirvana, I have tried to transmit as best I could the spirit of humor, and the sense of humor of the monks I have encountered.

Childhood knows unhappiness through men. In solitude, it can relax its aches. When the human world leaves him in peace, the child feels like the son of the cosmos.

The British keep employing me, and that makes me like them. It also makes me think they're very intelligent.

My toughest opponent has always been me.

The kids would be thrown into the middle, to choose sides.

I didn’t want to know that the monster that lived under your bed when you were a kid not only really is there but used to have a few beers with your dad.