“You see, that's the whole point of being in government. If you don't like something you simply make up a law that makes it illegal.”

“If you make guns illegal, the only people who will have them will be criminals—and the government, which of course is the same thing.”

“That was the whole point of being special: You existed to make sure everyone else behaved, but that didn't mean YOU had to.”

“Perhaps defining a self begins with simply making the first choice, simply rising up and deciding what you desire, and then methodically, like writing, putting one word after the other until you have created a whole self and a whole life in the process.”

“You must know nothing before you can learn something, and be empty before you can be filled. Is not the emptiness of the bowl what makes it useful? As for laws, a parrot can repeat them word for word. Their spirit is something else again. As for governing, one must first be lowest before being highest.”

“When you find something that's whole, you do what you can to keep it that way. And when you fins something that isn't, then maybe it's not a bad idea to try to make it whole again. Maybe.”