“What reading does...is keep alive the dangerous and exhilarating idea that life is not sequenced of lived moments, but a destiny.”

“What reading does, ultimately, is keep alive the dangerous and exhilarating idea that a life is not a sequence of lived moments, but a destiny...the time of reading, the time defined by the author's language resonating in the self, is not the world's time, but the soul's. The energies that otherwise tend to stream outward through a thousand channels of distraction are marshaled by the cadences of the prose; they are brought into focus by the fact that it is an ulterior, and entirely new, world that the reader has entered. The free-floating self--the self we diffusely commune with while driving or walking or puttering in the kitchen--is enlisted in the work of bringing the narrative to life. In the process, we are able to shake off the habitual burden of insufficient meaning and flex our deeper natures.”

“Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the Romance of the unusual.”

“If we don't have that, what do we have to live for? Does it matter if it's a lie if it keeps us alive?”

“You have the right to chose your destiny, otherwise you will be left to live someone else's idea of what your life should be.”

“If you want to keep alive in the jungle, you must live as the jungle does.”