“My sister, the one who knows everything and pulls out facts out of a bottomless hat, told me people aren't afraid of snakes or water upon birth. It is only once we hear the snake and water stories,...”

“... no matter how we go about it, we are never poorer for the experiences that teach us how to write our own manuals.”

“Even in Sri Lanka, the worst only happened in my imagination, I'd say, and this is so because we live on a planet where good people outnumber bad.”

“I think this is something we all can relate to: experiences that may start out as good ideas until suddenly, they become ordeals, no longer adventures, no matter the attitude.”

“Safety is an illusion and perhaps it's better to challenge it sometimes, to see how far we can go, to learn about the stuff we are made of.”

“Meditation did not relieve me of my anxiety so much as flesh it out. It took my anxious response to the world, about which I felt a lot of confusion and shame, and let me understand it more complet...”

“All this wondering was the weather vane on top of the building of unrest and of discontent”

“Anxiety is love's greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.”

“The purpose of that apple tree is to grow a little new wood each year. That is what I plan to do.”

“It gives a fella relief to tell, but it jus' spreads out his sin.”