“My sense of humor will always stand in the way of my seeing myself, my family, my race or my nation as the whole intent of the universe.”

“My sense of god is my sense of wonder about the universe.”

“My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude… ”

“But my whole life has been a matter of fighting for one simple hour to do what I want to do. There was always something getting in the way of my getting to myself.”

“What part of you is dead, my daughter?”I didn’t know—my sense of humor maybe?”

“If I sit for a while, then my impatience, crossness, frustration, are indeed annihilated, and my sense of humor returns.”