The great thing is not having a mind. Feelings: oh, I have those; they govern me.

We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory.

Of two sisters one is always the watcher, one the dancer.

The advantage of poetry over life is that poetry, if it is sharp enough, may last.

The master said you must write what you see / But what I see does not move me / The master answered Change what you see.

Intense love always leads to mourning.

I pretended indifference…even in the presence of love, in the presence of hunger. And the more deeply I felt, the less able I was to respond.

From the beginning of time, in childhood, I thought that pain meant I was not loved. It meant I loved.

The soul is silent. If it speaks at all it speaks in dreams.

The unsaid, for me, exerts great power.

At first I saw you everywhere. Now only in certain things, at longer intervals.

Ponder the affirmative.

Freedom is the default position. Everything the government does takes away some of our freedom... That's why we have a constitution, to restrain the government.

If you cross-section anyone's life from one angle and then another, what constitutes goodness looks different each time. It's not an absolute.

One approaches the journey's end. But the end is a goal, not a catastrophe.

A few regular troops from old France, weakened by hunger and sickness, who, when fresh, were unable to withstand the British soldiers, are their general's chief dependence.

Performing for the Dalai Lama - those are words I never imagined coming out of my mouth.

No one can pray and worry at the same time.

Transforming yourself is a means of giving light to the whole world.

Once it is out of his hand the artist has no control over the way a viewer will perceive the work. Different people will understand the same thing in a different way.

I'm not suggesting that ours [series] is unique in that, but they can begin to have that depth, that gravity, they can spend some time, so it's a bit more like reading a good novel, if you like.