“The point of living in the world is just to stay interested.”

“I wasn't glad that I hadn't died. And I wasn't sad that I hadn't. I wasn't anything.”

“All right, all right," he said, with that gesture I'd come to hate: two open palms facing me and patting the air, as if pushing me away, pushing me down, pushing any tears I might be preparing to c...”

“If you love something, know that it will leave on a day you are far from ready.”

“Like many parents in middle age, he's quick to spot changes in the world, slow to note shifts in his own perspective.”

“For though I was raised Protestant, my true religion is actually civility. Please note that I do not call my faith politeness. Thats part of it, yes, but I say civility because I believe that good ...”

“There are two types of seeds in the mind: those that create anger, fear, frustration, jealousy, hatred and those that create love, compassion, equanimity and joy. Spirituality is germination and sp...”

“My music teacher offered twittering madrigals and something about how, in Italy, in Italy, the oranges hang on the tree. He treated me - the humiliation of it - as a soprano.These, by contrast, are...”

“If you spend your time hoping someone will suffer the consequences for what they did to your heart, then you're allowing them to hurt you a second time in your mind.”

“A recurrent question about photography is how much self expression it allows the photographer. There are two standard positions, each corresponding to a different location oh photographic skill. Th...”

“when he smiles it's as if you'd just told him the first joke on earth.”

“It is loves nature to be expressed.”

“The spiritual life to me has always meant just one thing: feeling.”

“since feeling is firstwho pays any attentionto the syntax of thingswill never wholly kiss you;wholly to be a foolwhile Spring is in the worldmy blood approves,and kisses are a far better fatethan w...”

“Shes kept her love for him as alive as the summer they first met. In order to do this, shes turned life away. Sometimes she subsists for days on water and air. Being the only known complex life-for...”