The big picture is that there is no big picture. That's why we keep painting it.

The law of mosaics: how to deal with parts in the absence of wholes.

People read fiction... to learn something about how to live their lives.

If you don't use your own imagination, somebody else is going to use it for you.

Use your imagination, " I tell my students these days, "or someone else is going to use it for you.

I want to write a book like a cloud that changes as it goes.

...The human mind is a complicated place...We hold on to things, images, words, ideas, histories that we don't even know we're holding on to.

In a world where celebrity equals talent, and where make-believe is called reality, it is most important to have real love, truth and stability in your life.

It's easy to focus on the differences, harder to find the similarities in people.

I'd often wondered what would I do if I were ever traded, because it happened many, many times.

On my days off I pick up our chicken's eggs. My wife and I have five chickens called The Spice Girls. Five lovely chicks. And no, we won't be eating any of them for Christmas dinner.

I thought it would be nice to marry Virgil [Thomson] to have a musical background, but I never got far with the project.

In the little town where I live in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, we now have a 'Public Safety Complex' around the corner from what used to be our hokey Andy Griffith-esque fire station.

I just believe if you don't believe in God, then where is your moral barometer? That's just me talking. You can believe what you want to believe.

It is the human things that make life good, the unexpected kindness, the friendly note, the bracing word, the neighbour's extra loaf of bread she leaves at our back door.

In trees, I see expression and soul