“You are nearing the land that is life; you will recognize it by its seriousness.”

“The big occurrences in life, the serious ones, have for me always been nearly impossible to recognize because they never feel big or serious. In the moment, you have to pee, your arm itches, or what people are saying strikes you as melodramatic or sentimental, and it's hard not to smirk. You have a sense of what this type of situation should be like - for one thing, all-consuming - and this isn't it. But then you look back, and it was that; it did happen.”

“Recognizing who you are is not the subtext of a life. It's the main point.”

“The peasants of all lands recognize power and they salute it, whether it's good or evil.”

“Life catches you by surprise. It always does. But there's good mixed in with the bad. It's there. You just have to recognize it.”

“Life is serious...but you cannot take it seriously.”