“Why is it that the most fundamental life lesson—LIVE!—is the only one I continually forget to put into practice?”

“I need to be more in the moment, like when I was wet and wild in the waves. Being in the moment—right now!—equals freedom. It can't be scrutinized, analyzed, rhapsodized, mythologized. Itcan't be desecrated, debated, prognosticated. Right now can only be lived. Isn't this the same message Itried to get across to the kiddies in the lecture that got me fired? Isn't this the same advice Gladdie gave me right before she died?Why is it that the most fundamental life lesson—LIVE!—is the one I continually forget to put into practice?”

“Elena's lesson is not one of death and cancer; instead it is one of hope and life. She taught me how to live, how to love, and how to laugh. I will never forget that lesson.”

“Man, know thyself. I say it out loud. The phrase is one of those phrases with which everyone is familiar, of which everyone acknowledges the value, and which only the most sagacious put into practice. I don't know why.”

“I wondered if all a person could hope for was illusion and luck, for I was forced to conclude that the world was fundamentally and appallingly dangerous. It is a lesson I will never forget.”

“I've spent most of my life perfecting the craft of living history. I have no practice at living in the present.”