Congratulations, he said. "That was the stupidest thing I've ever seen." His expression was a mix of awe and disbelief. "Ever.

When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.

Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.

It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.

Only priests and fools are fearless and I've never been on the best of terms with God.

Using words to talk of words is like using a pencil to draw a picture of itself, on itself. Impossible. Confusing. Frustrating ... but there are other ways to understanding.

She taught me I should never do anything in private I did not want talked about in public, and cautioned me not to talk in my sleep.

Metal rusts, music lasts forever.

Fear tends to come from ignorance. Once I knew what the problem was, it was just a problem, nothing to fear.

No hard feelings about that time in the Crucible when you mixed my salts and I was nearly blind for a day. No. No, really, drink up!

He had a bright, reckless tenor that was always wandering off, looking for notes in the wrong places.

All our ancient history, as one of our wits remarked, is no more than accepted fiction.

Learn from past experiences but accept them all as perfect while staying in the present. Let go of everything that doesn't serve you.

Deep under our feet the Earth holds its molten breath, while the bones of countless generations watch us and wait.

I have decided to take whatever my disease can throw at me.

When a monk complained about the world's evil, the Buddha stretched his hand toward the Earth: "on this Earth I attained Liberation".

God help England if she had no Scots to think for her.

For me, it's just eat whatever makes you feel good. Work out whenever you want to. Just take care of yourself.

You jump on a bike and start peddling. You fall down and you get up again. I've always been a 'learn by doing' kind of guy.

Sometimes in life, there are no second chances

However, a rich print environment helps only when more reading is done.