“Then I let the stories live
inside my head, again and again
until the real world fades back
into cricket lullabies
and my own dreams.”

“As I grow older, much older, I will experience many things, and I will hit rock bottom again and again. Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed.”

“I lived too much in my head instead of the real world.”

“I go back to the reading room, where I sink down in the sofa and into the world of The Arabian Nights. Slowly, like a movie fadeout, the real world evaporates. I'm alone, inside the world of the story. My favourite feeling in the world.”

“I went to the guest room and pretended to write. I hit the space bar again and again and again. My life story was spaces.”

“Listen:
The waitress brought me another drink. She wanted to light my hurricane lamp again. I wouldn't let her. "Can you see anything in the dark, with your sunglasses on?" she asked me.
"The big show is inside my head," I said”

“I'm so darn glad he let me try it again,
'Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin,
I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then,
Gonna keep on trying until I reach my highest ground.”

“Story on Story of wonderful hills and streams
Their blue-green haze locked in clouds!
Mists brush my thin cap with moisture
Dew wets my coat of plaited straw
On my feet I wear pilgrim's sandals
My hand holds a stick of old rattan
Though I look down again on the dusty world
What is that land of dreams to me?”

“This year, once again, the seasons have passed.
Memories have faded.
The border between my blurry dream and
reality has become blurred.
Even so, the dream I once told you of
did not have a single lie.”

“You have to say I am forgiven again and again until it becomes the story you believe about yourself.”