“In the closet, in my nest of human cloth, I dreamt of skinless people, a world of living meat, clinched in a wounded hug and finally understanding. We would truly feel the cold, we would truly know each other.”

“It is better to live presently. By living thus, perhaps we can learn to understand the nature of this fragile coexistence we share with the world around us.”

“My life and most people's lives are a series of little miracles -- strange coincidences which spring from uncontrollable impulses and give rise to incomprehensible dreams. We spend a lot of time pretending that we are normal, but underneath the surface each one of us knows that he or she is unique.”

“Once, at the dreaming dawn of history -- before the world was categorized and regulated by mortal minds, before solid boundaries formed between the mortal world and any other -- fairies roamed freely among men, and the two races knew each other well. Yet the knowing was never straightforward, and the adventures that mortals and fairies had together were fraught with uncertainty, for fairies and humans were alien to each other.”

“For historical currents do not irresistibly propel themselves and everyone in their path. No matter what their broader structural or ideological roots, they both carry along and are carried along by people, who are not merely passengers of history, but pilots as well.”

“Knowing how to live is not something we have to teach children. Knowing how to live is something we have to be careful not to take away from them.”

“At what age did I start to think that where I was going was more important than where I already was? When was it that I began to believe that the most important thing about what I was doing was getting it over with? Knowing how to live is not something we have to teach children. Knowing how to live is something we have to be careful not to take away from them.”