“Have some fun while you wait for the will of heaven.”

“That's when you stop being one way and start being another, Ruby said. Not something many people can do, or want to do. In fact, Ruby said, The only people who cross over, cross over because they'r...”

“Books are in the mind, Grandfather Alessandro said. Too many books and you forget your body is in the world.”

“There is nothing more lonely than a true artist.”

“Identity is your role in life, the part you play. Individuality is who you are, and who you are is revealed to you if you can get to complete presence.”

“Every time you hear a car alarm, Ruby said, another New Yorker has gone to hell.”

“We shall not cease from explorationAnd the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd know the place for the first time.”

“Advice," Doa Vorchenza chuckled. "Advice. The years play a sort of alchemical trick, transmuting one's mutterings to a state of respectability. Give advice at forty and you're a nag. Give it at sev...”

“Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain.”