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

“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...”

“Desire I think has less to do with possession than with participation, the will to involve oneself in the body of the world, in the principle of things expressing itself in splendid specificity, a ...”

“Communication is the breath or death of any relationship”

“Breath with awareness is prana. Breath without awareness is just air.”

“The more you listen to your breath, the more you can hear the voice of your soul.”

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of wi...”

“My dear,Find what you love and let it kill you.Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness.Let it kill you and let it devour your remains....”

“If you gave someone your heart and they died, did they take it with them? Did you spend the rest of forever with a hole inside you that couldn't be filled?”

“I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to...”

“[C]oncepts of dying in to a heaven or hell seem a good deal more political than spiritual. (124)”

“I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently manage, loving all the people I love, and doing as much as I can of the work I still have to do. ...”