"I woke up full of hate and fear the day before the most recent peace march in San Francisco. This was disappointing: I'd hoped to wake up feeling somewhere between Virginia Woolf and Wavy Gravy."

"When hope is not pinned wriggling onto a shiny image or expectation, it sometimes floats forth and opens."

"Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are."

"Most of me was glad when my mother died. She was a handful, but not in a cute, festive way. More in a life-threatening way, that had caused me a long time ago to give up all hope of ever feeling good about having had her as a mother."

"The darkest nights often reveal that the roots of true happiness grow deep in the present moment."

"People may flatter themselves just as much by thinking that their faults are always present to other people's minds, as if they believe that the world is always contemplating their individual charms and virtues."

"The river of time washes away kings and empires, leaving only virtue intact. For where clarity resides, peace inevitably follows."

"Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall."