Strip the hills, drain the boglands, and you create flood conditions inevitably. Yet that is what we have been doing for years.

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.

All walking is discovery. On foot we take the time to see things whole.

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.

There it is, fog, atmospheric moisture still uncertain in destination, not quite weather and not altogether mood, yet partaking of both.

As I stood and watched the mists slowly rising this morning I wondered what view was more beautiful than this.

Summer ends, and Autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have high tide always and a full moon every night.

You can't be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or a squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet.

A snowdrift is a beautiful thing - if it doesn't lie across the path you have to shovel or block the road that leads to your destination.

If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.

A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart.

Once you have walked down the grief path, what you have gained on your journey may turn into invaluable advice for someone else.

He loved her.And she loved him.And in such bliss does devastation grow.

I'm not on Twitter or Facebook and don't even use email. I don't trust computers: one day they'll all break down, and everyone will be knackered.

It was the greatest sensation of existence: not to trust but to know.

Empathy lies at the heart of Gatsby, like so many other great novels-the biggest sin is to be blind to others problems and pains. Not seeing them means denying their existence.

It's autumn and everybody feels like a disembodied spirit then.

After I had my youngest son,I took time for him and just spent more time with my family. But, I know it's time to get back to work. I am working on new music.

Being in Birmingham, I thought I was going to be a gangster or a bag-runner or a thief. I heard music and I was determined to get out of there.

The most crucial thing is to learn the craft: how to string sentences together, how to make your dialogue sound like real people, how to properly pace a story, how to develop interesting characters.

When I first read 'On the Road,' it helped me figure out how to live against the grain. Now I wonder how to be subversive when the subversive has become mainstream.