Each of us carries some wisdom waiting to be discovered at the center of our experience. Everything we meet, if faced and held, reveals a part of that wisdom.

I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.

The flower doesn't dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes.

Even when clouds grow thick, the sun still pours its light earthward.

The key to knowing joy is being easily pleased.

When we heal ourselves, we heal the world.

The real & lasting practice for each of us is to remove what obstructs us so we can be who we are.

To journey without being changed, is to be a nomad. To change without journeying is to be a chameleon. To journey and to be transformed by the journeying is to be a pilgrim.

Tragedy stays alive by feeling what's been done to us, while peace comes alive by living with the results.

…I keep looking for one more teacher, only to find that fish learn from the water and birds learn from the sky.” (p.275)

…there are no wrong turns, only unexpected paths.

There are worse things than suffering and death... it is worse to lose one's self-respect.

[On newspapers:] A first draft of history.

My wants are simple: a job that I like and a guy whom I love.

We knew nothing of loss. Nobody has taught us about pain. Until that moment, death had just amounted to a scary sound.

I often say that Bernhard, W.G. Sebald, and Javier Marías are my stylistic holy trinity, prose writers who amaze me with their notation of consciousness and voice.

If a guy is a good athlete, he'll end up being a pretty decent golfer if he just takes it up. But you never master it; even the best players in the world never master the game.

When I started stand-up - and this is in the '90s - there was definitely people hadn't watched decades of Comedy Central, where people are really much more educated on stand-up comedy.

I don't want to be Sheryl Sandberg and 'Lean In', I don't want to lean in like a guy. I want to be more. I want to be a woman and proudly a woman.

There it is. It is useless to ask ourselves why it is we who are here. We are here. There is only us between the airfield and the Japs. If we don't hold, we will loose Guadalcanal.

Of all vices, drinking is the most incompatible with greatness.