“Love, I think, is a gateway to the world, not an escape from it.”

“And then we ease him out of that worn-out body with a kiss, and he's gone like a whisper, the easiest breath.”

“What did you think, that joy / was some slight thing?”

“And, I think, this greening does thaw at the edges, at least, of my own cold season. Joy sneaks in: listening to music, riding my bicycle, I catch myself feeling, in a way thats as old as I am but ...”

“Ive been moving a little to the music while I worked and then I realize I am actually dancing. It feels wonderful, though I can feel how stiff my muscles are, how rigidly Ive been holding myselfMos...”

“One last mystery: on one of the little ponds, this morning, I saw wind riffling the first of the waterlily leaves. They havent all emerged yet, but new circles tattoo the water, here and there, a c...”

“To create art with all the passion in one's soul is to live art with all the beauty in one's heart.”

“art is risk made visible”

“Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”

“The words I Love You kill, and resurrect millions, in less than a second.”

“It wasn't a thing I had consciously missed, but having it now reminded me of the joy of it; that drowsy intimacy in which a man's body is accessible to you as your own, the strange shapes and textu...”

“his yellow eyes gazed at me possessively -- I wondered if he realized that the way he looked at me was far more intimate than copping a feel could ever be.”

“Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around. You tell them things that youve never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you sa...”

“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there i...”