“The animals haven't split apart into what they think and what they feel. They are whole and trust in their instincts.”

“In the rare air of that altitude he forgot he was he. One way or another that was the aim of life. Shamans flew outside the self in ecstasy. Other people found love, or causes.”

“Tchingis, if you determine this is to be so, who can withstand you? You are poetry after an ugly day, and heal wounds I didn't know I had.”

“Such coincidences were the rhymes that God wrote into fate, his chords of music.”

“He only knows a single thing to clasp, that like God can't be split up into pieces: our honesty to one another.”

“I am a neighbour king to stretch my branches over him, just as Toghrul sheltered me when I was a weed-stalk next to a strong tree.”

“When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for t...”

“You know Balbec so well - do you have friends in the area?'I have friends wherever there are companies of trees, wounded but not vanquished, which huddle together with touching obstinacy to implore...”

“Things that matter are not easy. Feelings of happiness are easy. Happiness is not. Flirting is easy. Love is not. Saying youre friends is easy. Being friends is not.”

“Asides your power, passion and poise, what glues the posters of your impacts on memorial walls is how you treat those you need and those who need you.”