To me, religion is about our dignity, not our depravity.

You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.

My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition.

Slice a pear and you will find that its flesh is incandescent white. It glows with inner light. Those who carry a knife and a pear are never afraid of the dark.

Zoo is an artificial territory, an approximation. Civilization is our natural territory.

To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

Life is a peephole, a single tiny entry onto a vastness--how can I not dwell on this brief, cramped view of things? This peephole is all I've got!

We commonly say in the trade that the most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man.

I know zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both.

If you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for? Isn't love hard to believe?

No one dies of nausea, but it can seriously sap the will to live.

The tragedy of being

Sleep, Maya, " he murmured softly. "Sleep, my love, and I promise that I will come looking for you.

When I finish as the host of 'Jeopardy!' I'm going to go up to Taft in central California. They have a small college there that teaches you about oil drilling.

I dont think I ever wanted to be a journalist - I was more interested in what comes from being a journalist.

There is no sweeter pleasure than to surprise a man by giving him more than he hopes for.

The acoustics seem to get louder

When we’re courageous enough to be with what scares us, we can awaken our intuition and create a new path for healing.

One of [ways being lucky] was to go to school during the Great Depression because teaching became a plum job.

I do have a delicate side.

To Yesterday's Companionship and Tomorrow's Reunion.