“... And that has remained an important mental landscape for me, a reference point. It teaches me something or tries to. People need things like that to go on living mental landscapes that have me...”

“The only instance where five purely-negative words have had a highly positive, motivational impact, are Winston Churchill's "Never, Never, Never, Never Give-Up".”

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

“It is well to remember that the stomach governs the world," wrote Churchill when planning the feeding of his troops on the north-west Indian frontier at the tail-end of the nineteenth century.”

“Understanding comes hard to persons of high rank who are accustomed to phony lifestyles that involve no daily work.”

“Creation and destruction are the two ends of the same moment. And everything between the creation and the next destruction is the journey of life.”

“But understanding will always require some effort. You probably wouldn't admire a friend who was good at everything if it cost her no effort.”

“There is an instinctive withdrawal for the sake of preservation, a closure that assumes the order of completion. Winter is a season unto itself.”