- "I had actively participated in every moment of the creation of this life- so why did I feel like none of it resmbled me?"
- "There's another wonderful Italian expression: l'arte d'arrangiarsi- the art of making something out of nothing. The art of turning a few simple ingredients into a feast, or a few gathered friends into a festival. Anyone with a talent for happiness can do this, not only the rich."
- "I love my pizza so much, in fact, that I have come to believe in my delirium that my pizza might actually love me, in return. I am having a relationship with this pizza, almost an affair."
- "I mean- that terrible, ragged breed of bawling my friend Sally calls 'double-pumpin' it,' when you have to inhale two desperate gasps of oxygen with every sob."
- "Still, I will say that the same thing that which has helped generations of Sicilians hold their dignity has helped me begin to recover mine- namely, the idea that the appreciation of pleasure can be an anchor to one's humanity."
- "...when you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt- this is not selfishness, but obligation. You were given life; it is your duty (and also entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight."
- "Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions."
- "Just as there exists in writing a literal truth and a poetic truth, there also exists in a human being a literal anatomy and a poetic anatomy. One, you can see; one, you cannot. One is made of bones and teeth and flesh; the other if made of energy and memory and faith. But they are both equally true."
- "Destiny, I feel, is also a relationship- a play between divine grace and willful self-effort. Half of it you have no control over; half of it is absolutely in your hands, and your actions will show measurable consequence."
- "The notion of karma implies that heaven and hell are only to be found here on earth, where we have the capacity to create them, manufacturing either goodness or evil depending on our destinies and our characters."
- "To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life."
jun 21 2011 ∞
jul 1 2011 +