“She was transparent, like a watercolor. As if she were about to dissolve in sound, in tones not yet created.”

“She looked at him. As if she wanted to determine his molecular weight.”

“The child had wanted attention. She had just asked to be noticed. But she was given an assessment. 'What a clever girl!”

“When my mother didn't come back I realized that any moment could be the last. Nothing in life should simply be a passage from one place to another. Each walk should be taken as if it is the only thing you have left. You can demand something like this of yourself as an unattainable ideal. After that, you have to remind yourself about it every time you're sloppy about something. For me that means 250 times a day.”

“Those who were on the inside, the majority that is, for them it had been hard to get his point, mostly they were just pleased that they were on the inside, that they were the fittest.For those on the outside, the fear and abandonment amounts to almost everything; everybody knows that.Understanding is something one does best when one is on the borderline.”

“I feel the same way about solitude as some people feel about the blessing of the church. It's the light of grace for me. I never close my door behind me without the awareness that I am carrying out an act of mercy toward myself.”

“The great systems that inform the world about the truth and life invariably claim to be absolutely truthful and well-balanced. In reality they are quaking bridges built out of yearning.”