“The sweat of hard work is not to be displayed. It is much more graceful to appear favored by the gods.”

“In a time of destruction, create something.”

“Perhaps women were once so dangerous they had to have their feet bound.”

“Ocean people are different from land people. The ocean never stops saying and asking into ears, which dont sleep like eyes. Those who live by the sea examine the driftwood and glass balls that floa...”

“This is the most important thing about me--I'm a card-carrying reader. All I really want to do is sit and read or lie down and read or eat and read or shit and read. I'm a trained reader. I want a ...”

“It must be that people who read go on more macrocosmic and microcosmic trips biblical god trips, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Ulysses, Finnegans Wake trips. Non-readers, what do they get? (They g...”

“We accept the love we think we deserve.”

“All Earthquakes and Disasters are warnings theres too much corruption in the world ”

“Its only when youre at the bottom of the ladder that you ascend.”

“There is a light within our soul that burns brighter than the sun. And we ignore it.”

“It's not much. You begin by thinking there is something extraordinary about it. But you'll find out, when you've been out in the world a while longer, unhappiness is the commonest thing there is.”

“A man can gasp out his life beside you-and you feel none of it. Pity, Sympathy, sure-but you don't feel the pain. Your belly is whole and that's what counts. A half-yard away someone's world is snu...”