“You have only one friend in this world, yourself.”

“Every place is a goldmine. You have only to give yourself time, sit in a teahouse watching the passers-by, stand in a corner of the market, go for a haircut. You pick up a thread – a word, a meeting, a friend of a friend of someone you have just met – and soon the most insipid, most insignificant place becomes a mirror of the world, a window on life, a theatre of humanity.”

“Remain true to yourself, child. If you know your own heart, you will always have one friend who does not lie.”

“You cannot friend a hawk, they said, unless you are a hawk yourself, alone and only a sojourner in the land, without friends or the need of them.”

“Get a grip on yourself. there's only one god here on earth, and that's you. If you don't like the world, make one you like better.”

“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”