“In this great age of communication, there a lot of people you can't actually understand. I know everyone tweets, and twits and texts and all that, but actually we've all got voices, and it is awful...”

“I plant a lot of trees. I am a great believer in planting things for future generations. I loathe the now culture where you just live for today.”

“Everyone wants instant everything, and they want instant success, but I always think you should treat things in the arts like a garden, and let them grow.”

“Shyness is just egotism out of its depth.”

“To your simple existence, do not boast;merely to breathe or move or think is not to live.The shore of the sea is but a ghost,compared to the depth its wholeness gives.You exist in the miry foam;mak...”

“That is the definition of truth, it is the thing you must not say. The miracle into which the child and the poet walk [Tsvetaeva] as if walking home, and home is thereThe thing that is both known a...”

“Love can take one over the clouds, out to space And also to the depths of the Earth where you get trapped and coming back feels like a forgotten dream..”

“The ego is like a clever monkey, which can co-opt anything, even the most spiritual practices, so as to expand itself. (155)”

“Ego like bile over taste buds. Get it out or hold it in. It's the suspension will drive you nuts, churn your gut.”

“War within ourselves is always a prelude to war outside ourselves. All war starts within our own hearts. When our egos are inflated or our desires insatiable, we go to war with the other for the sa...”

“Many people suffer great miseries but if you ask them in front of others, 'you went through great difficulty, didn't you?', then they will respond, 'no, no I didn't have any suffering'. Then they f...”

“Perhaps what I am about to say will appear strange to you gentlemen, socialists, progressives, humanitarians as you are, but I never worry about my neighbor, I never try to protect society which do...”

“When I was a student, there wasn't a single thing we did that was unrelated to others. It was all for the Emperor, or parents, or the country, or societyeverything was other-centered, which means t...”