I was never a man of great ambition I cried too easily I didn't have a head for science Words often failed me While others prayed I only moved my lips

...we take comfort in the symmetries we find in life because they suggest a design where there is none.

Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.

there are two types of people in the world: those who prefer to be sad among others, and those who prefer to be sad alone.

What about you? Are you happiest and saddest right now that you've ever been?" "Of course I am." "Why?" "Because nothing makes me happier and nothing makes me sadder than you.

She struggled with her sadness, but tried to conceal it, to divide it into smaller and smaller parts and scatter these in places she thought no one would find them.

To hike out alone in the desert; to sleep on the valley floor on a night with no moon, in the pitch black, just listening to the boom of silence: you can't imagine what that's like.

That's what I do. Watch movies and read. Sometimes I even pretend to write, but I'm not fooling anyone. Oh, and I go to the mailbox.

When will you learn that there isn't a word for everything?

I've reached the age where bruises are formed from failures within rather than accidents without.

So many words get lost. They leave the mouthand lose their courage, wandering aimlessly until they are swept into the gutter like dead leaves. On rainy days you can hear their chorus rushing past.

I love you all, even those I don’t particularly like. That’s you, Beryl.

Many people who are drawn to work about racism and transphobia may be new to thinking deeply about colonialism and indigenous resistance in their North America.

Beyond all our Blackberries and iPhones, we're dangerously separated from our food and water supplies.

Abstraction is itself an abstract word and has no single meaning ... Every word in our language is abstract, because it represents something else.

I've never had a plan, I've always done things from instinct.

It's hard to do, but I think it's really important to go back and watch yourself.

When France sneezes, all of Europe catches cold.

Our past is not our potential.

Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance.

The EU should be concentrated on adapting to globalisation and global competitiveness, not building more powerful centralised institutions in Brussels.