“I think people see death as the hunter, but it's just the ticket taker, the timekeeper. It's the sound of a record playing in the background.”

“It's amazing how smart the body is. Though maybe we could do without loving. I think it's overrated, and I think it's too hard. You should only love your children; that is necessary, because otherwise you might kill them. But to love a man? It's overrated, and it's too hard and I will never, ever do it again.”

“I will be so glad for you to hear not the sounds of gunfire but the sounds of church bells, and of people working in peace.”

“Make time for prayer and reflection; try to understand your value as a man on earth but see, too, your proper place in the scheme of things. It may sound funny to say this, but I have come to see that we are all far more important and less important than we think.”

“I think it's a real gift to be able to say that what's in your life is enough. It seems most of us re always wanting more.”

“I'm sorry! It's just that it hurts so much and it never stops!”

“When it's new and important, you have to rest in between times. And anyway, even when I like a person there is a weariness that comes. I can be with someone and everything is fine and then all of a sudden it can wash over me like a sickness, that I need the quiet of my own self. I need to unload my head and look at what I've got in there so far. See it. Think what it means. I always need to come back to being alone for a while.”