“If 'ecstasy' meant the sudden intrusion of the sacred into the ordinary, then it had just happened to me.”

“Nevertheless, I drove right past my landmark, an antique store which looked to me like an ordinary house with junk piled on the front porch.”

“I realized if something happens to him, it happens to me, too. If I love myself, I love him, for we are one. That makes it a risk worth taking for me - it wouldn't be for anyone else, unless they loved him.”

“You had to exert yourself to see this world. But if you did, if you had that kind of curiosity, if you had an innate interest in the welfare of your fellow human beings, and if you went through that door, a strange thing happened: you left your petty troubles on the threshold. It could be addictive”

“happened has happened, be will be”

“He was teaching me how to die, just as he'd taught me how to live.”

“You know what's given me the greatest pleasure in my life? It's been our bungalow, the normalcy of it, the ordinariness of my waking, Almaz rattling in the kitchen, my work, my classes, my rounds with the senior students. Seeing you and Shiva at dinner, then going to sleep with my wife...I want my days to be that way.”