Because stories start in minds-- they aren't artifacts or natural phenomena.

Writing's a lot like cooking. Sometimes the cake won't rise, no matter what you do, and every now and again the cake tastes better than you ever could have dreamed it would.

We wrapped our dreams in words and patterned the words so that they would live forever, unforgettable.

Do not lose hope — what you seek will be found. Trust ghosts. Trust those that you have helped to help you in their turn. Trust dreams. Trust your heart, and trust your story. (from 'Instructions')

Recounting the strange is like telling one's dreams: one can communicate the events of a dream, but not the emotional content, the way that a dream can colour one's entire day.

Know that diamonds and roses are as uncomfortable when they tumble from one's lips as toads and frogs: colder, too, and sharper, and they cut.

On the whole, stories don't write themselves.

Never use five words if you can get away with one, eh? I've known dead men talk more than you do.

I was not so old that I would deny my own senses.

If we do not fight to create a future there will be no future for any of us.

I believe we owe it to each other to tell stories. It's as close to a credo as I have or will, I suspect, ever get.

How confusing to live in the shadow of a shadow.

Beautiful food and health are priceless.

... a true servant of God is someone who helps another succeed.

Music is my love and to me acting is more mercenary. I don't pound the pavements for roles: if it happens, it happens. I hate that auditioning thing.

A security system is only as secure as its secret. Beware of pseudo-secrets.

Zen was a reaction. Just as Buddha came into the world and spoke against the fall of Vedanta, so Buddhism lost its essence and became ritual. Zen was a reaction to that.

I cannot walk through the suburbs in the solitude of the night without thinking that the night pleases us because it suppresses idle details, just as our memory does.

Something that always fascinated me was the psychology and the psychology differences between men and women and how we relate to one another.

I have no regrets about my career or retiring. Not once have I thought 'Gosh, I wish I was back on the court.

A man is sane morally at thirty, rich mentally at forty, wise spiritually at fifty-or never!