Tuesday, September 11, 2001, dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States.

The wind shows us how close to the edge we are.

The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs.

To cure jealousy is to see it for what it is, a dissatisfaction with self.

We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not.

I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.

Memory fades, memory adjusts, memory conforms to what we think we remember.

We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget.

The fear is for what is still to be lost.

Do not whine... Do not complain. Work harder. Spend more time alone.

Short stories demand a certain awareness of one's own intentions, a certain narrowing of the focus.

Love is like taking a leap, Darragh. You don't know when you step off the ledge if the drop is six inches or six thousand feet. What matters is you jump.

If your belief system, mission, values and attitude are poisoned or contaminated, then expect whatever you enjoy and perceive as success to be short-lived.

A story that must be told never forgives silence.

When you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes and not more intelligent.

The minute what you think of as radical becomes an institutionalised, funded operation, you're in some trouble.

Nothing teaches character better than generosity.

Anyone who knows the marketing world knows that ideas come and go, and people latch onto things and think of them as a kind of solution.

I like snakes. I like hummingbirds. There's nothing on earth I don't like. Frogs. Salamanders. The bunnies, the giraffes, the hippopotamuses.