“The leaves let go, the seeds let go, and I must let go sometimes, too, and cast my lot with another of nature’s imperfect but tenacious survivors.”

“If I don't have time to live my life well the first time, when am I going to find the time to go back and live it over?”

“Once you know where the roller coaster is going, are you in for the ride?”

“And sure, I know if you eat this way you'll die. So? If you don't eat this way you're still going to die. Why not die happy?”

“These are the things I learned (in Kindergarten):1. Share everything.2. Play fair.3. Don't hit people.4. Put things back where you found them.5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.6. Don't take things that aren't yours.7. Say you're SORRY when you HURT somebody.8. Wash your hands before you eat.9. Flush.10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.11. Live a balanced life - learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.12. Take a nap every afternoon.13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.”

“And it is still true, no matter how old you are -- when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.”

“It's just this: that there are places we all come from-deep-rooty-common places- that makes us who we are. And we disdain them or treat them lightly at our peril. We turn our backs on them at the risk of self-contempt. There is a sense in which we need to go home again-and can go home again. Not to recover home, no. But to sanctify memory.”