The heart is an artist that paints over what profoundly disturbs it, leaving on the canvas a less dark, less sharp version of the truth.

The functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy.

The whisper of the dusk is night shedding its husk.

Where there is cake, there is hope. And there is always cake.

Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.

Nothing is worse than being alone on the evening of the day when one's cow has exploded.

Only once in a generation does anything as fresh as a vomiting detective come along.

The hands of every clock are shears, trimming us away scrap by scrap, and every time piece with a digital readout blinks us towards implosion.

Most people tend to think the best of those who are blessed with beauty; we have difficulty imagining that physical perfection can conceal twisted emotions or a damaged mind.

Any drunk who has tried to put his car where a lamppost stands is a self-educated physicist.

Given my heritage and the ordeal of my childhood, I sometimes wonder why I myself am not insane. Maybe I am.

Joy is the realest reality, the fullest life, and joy is always given, never grasped. God gives gifts and I give thanks and I unwrap the gift given: joy. (Page 57)

A thick, intense fog was rolling in from the ocean, which created long, strange shadows to form like creatures of their own kind.

My buddies, we've always just tried to make each other laugh. I mean, just like all friends hanging out - that's the goal.

Freedom was taken away from my family until we landed in America and it was given back to us.

I totally think that the likelihood upon this whole galaxy and universe, we are the only ones... I don't think we are.

Once the high priests and the traders took over, we were lost as a species.

Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you are young is good for you, she said. It immunized your body and your soul.

There's a rule in Hollywood: stay away from water and stay away from snow, and I had both.

I have never cared too much what people say. What I am interested in is what they do.