The body's a funny thing. It's so full of surprises that it makes conventional wisdom seem silly.

One can learn anything, anything at all, I thought, if provided by a gifted and passionate teacher.

Music could ache and hurt, that beautiful music was a place a suffering man could hide.

Fantasy is one of the soul's brighter porcelains.

The pursuit of greatness means that laziness has no place in your life.

Her laughter was a shiny thing, like pewter flung high in the air.

The water was pure and cold and came out of the Apennines tasting like snow melted in the hands of a pretty girl.

It's politics . . . It makes everybody stupid. When you grow up, you'll know what I mean.

Carolina beach music, " Dupree said, coming up on the porch. "The holiest sound on earth.

Wasn't Atlanta the murder capital of the U.S. last year?" "Yes, but the airport's perfectly safe.

I can walk without shoes and live without cloths, but I cannot live without dignity even for a second.

A conservative is a man who will not look at the new moon out of respect for that "ancient institution " the old one.

Weight doesn't matter as long as you're happy with yourself.

And let that day be lost to us on which we did not dance once! And let that wisdom be false to us that brought no laughter with it!

I tried making an album six years ago. It was just horrific. Trust me, it's smashed into smithereens. I paid big money to silence that one.

Oh, to be home again, home again, home again! Under the apple-boughs, down by the mill!

I'm on performance enhancing drugs, so I may cause drowsiness.

I'm a person of the mountains and the open paddocks and the big empty sky, that's me, and I knew if I spent too long away from all that I'd die; I don't know what of, I just knew I'd die.

One day, you will say it to me again. You will be sober. And you will mean it.

...it is time [for Islam] to assume, along with all of the great cultural traditions, the modern risks of scientific knowledge.