Being in the presence of the "other" seems to show me who I am in a way that is really important to me. I feel radically more comfortable in Laos, say, than I do in Pennsylvania.

I always tell my students, about the biggest baddest things in life you must try to write small and light, save the big writing for the unexpected tiny thing that always makes or breaks a story.

Dogs change lives. Half Buddha, half Bozo, they keep us tethered to the earth, and teach us to fly. Our dogs are our sanity keepers.

When I was a little kid, I used to walk miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles of railroad tracks.

I've been to a lot of school and read a lot of thick books, but at my very core there's a made-for-TV-movie mentality I don't think i will ever shake.

Movement helps keep me centered. I am a disaster, for instance, at sitting meditation, but I'm pretty decent at walking meditation.

Life gives us what we need when we need it; receiving what it gives us is a whole other thing.

I've always said the toughest thing about learning to feel your feelings is that then you have to feel your feelings.

Stillness is a harder concept for me than ecstasy, but I can imagine it best when I am fully present and paying strict attention to a place I am moving through.

One thing I'm always thinking about myself is what am I willing to make up? And the answer is not much.

It's September 21st, a day I love for the balance it carries with it.

There is an old myth among the old folks here that if you wished on a moonlight river, your dreams will come true

Today is the day to cast your worries on God and breathe in new life. Your past does not define who you are today.

That's crazier than a boatload of prostitutes!

Truth is "the prize of life is death".

I try to walk at least three times a week for 40 minutes or an hour. I do it at the gym on the treadmill, or I go hiking outside.

Golf is a hard game to figure. One day you will go out and slice it and shank it, hit into all the traps and miss every green. The next day you go out and, for no reason at all, you really stink.

That night it felt that somehow by flicking them off the roof, the matches would burn down everything, the sparks from the tips of the flames, torching the world and all the heartbroken people in it.

We'll always be disappointed if we believe that we can plan for a peak experience and make it happen. True joy can't be anticipated or planned. It just strikes.

Vulgarity is simply the conduct of other people.

I want the public as well as libraries and schools to enjoy unlimited access to public-domain books. This means no charges for these kind of texts themselves.