Oleander time, she said. Lovers who kill each other now will blame it on the wind.

She would be half a planet away, floating in a turquoise sea, dancing by moonlight to flamenco guitar.

The phoenix must burn to emerge.

Always learn poems by heart. They have to become the marrow in your bones. Like fluoride in the water, they'll make your soul impervious to the world's soft decay.

You were my home, Mother. I had no home but you

Whenever she turned her steep focus to me, I felt the warmth that flowers must feel when they bloom through the snow, under the first concentrated rays of the sun.

I hated labels anyway. People didn't fit in slots--prostitute, housewife, saint--like sorting the mail. We were so mutable, fluid with fear and desire, ideals and angles, changeable as water.

I couldn't imagine owning beauty like my mothers. I wouldn't dare.

Her hatred glittered irresistibly. I could see it, the jewel, it was sapphire, it was the cold lakes of Norway.

Don't turn over the rocks if you don't want to see the pale creatures who live under them.

I took the volume to a table, opened its soft, ivory pages... and fell into it as into a pool during dry season.

We try to fix the outside so much, but our control of the outer world is limited, temporary, and often, illusory.

In order to create a positive life, you have to have a positive vision and take creative actions.

To the very last, the desire to challenge oneself and understand more. And to the very last: doubt.

You don't need to be a spook to care about encryption. If you travel with your computer or keep it in a place where other people can put their hands on it, you're vulnerable.

Standards are always out of date. That's what makes them standards.

We may go to the moon, but that' s not very far. The greatest distance we have to cover still lies within us.

Know how to solve every problem that has been solved.

If there was no death, everyone would wish for it.

The aeroplane is an invention of the devil and will never play any part in such a serious business as the defence of the nation, my boy!

I'm not a comic book guy. I've never been to Comic-Con. I don't know anything about that. It's a whole different world.