The timing of death, like the ending of a story, gives a changed meaning to what preceded it.

We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.

The past empowers the present, and the sweeping footsteps leading to this present mark the pathways to the future.

The human species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.

What would it be like to have not only color vision but culture vision, the ability to see the multiple worlds of others.

There are few things as toxic as a bad metaphor. You can't think without metaphors.

As you get up in the morning, as you make decisions, as you spend money, make friends, make commitments, you are creating a piece of art called your life.

When parents die, all of the partings of the past are reevoked with the realization that this time they will not return.

Worlds can be found by a child and an adult bending down and looking together under the grass stems or at the skittering crabs in a tidal pool.

Every loss recapitulates earlier losses, but every affirmation of identity echoes earlier moments of clarity.

Goals too clearly defined can become blinkers.

Nico found a sort of freedom in knowing that eventually, no matter what happened, he would end up at the foot of his father’s throne.

You cannot know what I do not tell you, yet you will be judged harshly for not knowing.

It is the function of the Navy to carry the war to the enemy so that it is not fought on U.S. soil.

Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the kingdom

I am not at all in favor of hard work for its own sake; many people who work very hard indeed produce terrible things, and should most certainly not be encouraged.

I did 'The Karate Kid,' then I just went back to college. I didn't know how much money it made and I didn't have a publicist. I didn't have any sense of the business part of it.

A small error in the former will produce an enormous error in the latter.

When I start writing, my unconscious, my conflicts, my thoughts all start to come up. So for me, writing is an exploration. I never know how my stories will end.

Economics has become increasingly an arcane branch of mathematics rather than dealing with real economic problems.

It is certain because it is possible.