The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows it to realize its supreme purpose through him.

Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.

Life really does begin at forty. Up until then, you are just doing research.

To be normal is the ultimate aim of the unsuccessful.

Do not compare, do not measure. No other way is like yours. All other ways deceive and tempt you. You must fulfill the way that is in you.

The world will ask you who you are, and if you don't know, the world will tell you.

The difference between a good life and a bad life is how well you walk through the fire

If our religion is based on salvation, our chief emotions will be fear and trembling. If our religion is based on wonder, our chief emotion will be gratitude.

We are not what happened to us, we are what we wish to become.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the second half is going inward and letting go of it.

So I put up with bad behavior in the name of loving the way I thought you were supposed to love.

If you try to test a river’s depths with both feet, you will drown.

My spirit has been around far longer than my soul--I've lived several lifetimes already. And one this novel has been written, I will have lived several more.

Nonviolence is supremely the weapon of the dispossessed, the underprivileged, and the egalitarian, not those who are still addicted to private profit, commercial values, and great wealth.

If God would concede me His omnipotence for 24 hours, you would see how many changes I would make in the world. But if He gave me His wisdom too, I would leave things as they are.

There are no experienced young people. Time makes experience.

I probably lead a very spoiled life, because I travel from people interested in permaculture to people interested in permaculture. Some of them are tribal, and some of them are urban, and so on.

Short stories and some short novels are close to poetry--with the fewest words they capture the essence of a situation, of a human being. It's like trying to pin down the eternal moment.

To be part of what you're singing about is somewhat painful. You've got to climb inside it all.

Big hooks have always been a part of American movie-making. So, to make a movie where you're just driving story through the characters without a high-concept is a challenge.