I woke in bits, like all children, piecemeal over the years. I discovered myself and the world, and forgot them, and discovered them again.

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.

No one escapes the wilderness on the way to the promised land.

At a certain point, you say to the woods, to the sea, to the mountains, the world, Now I am ready. Now I will stop and be wholly attentive. You empty yourself and wait, listening.

A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time.

As a life's work, I would remember everything - everything, against loss. I would go through life like a plankton net.

Experiencing the present purely is being empty and hollow; you catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall.

According to Inuit culture in Greenland, a person possesses six or seven souls. The souls take the form of tiny people scattered throughout the body.

The answer must be, I think, that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.

I had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck.

The dedicated life is worth living. You must give with your whole heart.

God can use the fear that grips the hearts of men today to point them to eternal truths—the truth of God’s eternal judgment, and the truth of His eternal love.

America is so vast that almost everything said about it is likely to be true and the opposite is probably equally true.

A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

When success comes, people can try to trick you or take advantage of you.

I feel blessed. To live an artistic life, it's a blessing.

You keep a secret inside of you and it feels like a wall that separates you from others.

He works at the kennel with Nana," Ben piped up. "And I think him and Mom are dating." At that, a stillness fell over a throng of admirers, punctuated by a few uncomfortable coughs.

Statistics are human beings with the tears wiped away.

If you can't find the exact quote you want, make it up.

I am proud of my black roots and of the black blood that runs in my veins.