I held my breath as we do sometimes to stop time when something wonderful has touched us.

it is a serious thing // just to be alive / on this fresh morning / in this broken world.

Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.

I don't ask for the sights in front of me to change, only the depth of my seeing.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began.

Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

In this universe we are given two gifts: the ability to love and the ability to question. Which are, at the same time, the fires that warm us and the fires that scorch us.

You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.

Why must you speak your thoughts? Silence, if fair words stick in your throat, would serve all our ends better.

Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist since at least half of the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

It is at midnight, not midday, that stars shine the brightest.

I started studying mythology, just on my own. Joseph Campbell, mysticism.

Once abroad, I eat one meal a day picnic-style: Ive learned that no mature stomach can tolerate an endless routine of rich restaurant meals.

Women will do anything Oprah Winfrey says, and that is why we can't have women voting.

I have an excellent memory, a most excellent memory.

If we had an audience to play to, the performance would have gotten too big. Sizing our performances to the camera was an important journey for me at least.

A bitter drug oft brings relief.

The soul of music slumbers in the shell Till waked and kindled by the master's spell; And feeling hearts, touch them but rightly, pour A thousand melodies unheard before!