“What I want to impart through our correspondence is that no matter what anyone may be going through, here’s the thing: If you love each other, and if your relationship is worth the pain or the hardship, stay with it. The extraordinary treasure of sharing another person’s life is one of the most gratifying experiences of being a human being.”

“Peace doesn’t deny difficulty, but it has an inner calm and quietness even while enduring the difficulty.”

“It’s true that no one ever said life would be easy, but it is also true that no one ever said you had to go through it alone.”

“In chaos is where learning happens the most.”

“We all face different challenges in life. But we all have an equal choice to move forward.”

“If you never wished you were an ass, you are most probably an ass.”

“Some people go through hard times, so bad that they can’t even talk about it, but no matter what, we should never give up.”

“When you leave home to follow your dreams, your road will probably be riddled with potholes, not always paved in happy Technicolor bricks. You’ll probably be kicked to the ground 150 million times and told you’re nuts by friends and strangers alike. As you progress you may feel lonely or terrified for your physical and emotional safety. You may overestimate your own capabilities or fail to live up to them, and you’ll surely fall flat on your face once in a while.”

“Siri ya mafanikio ni shida!”

“Do not despair. We will glimpse another track; we fill find another route. The day that is not this will come. The time that is not this will be.”

“Creative work is often driven by pain. It may be that if you don’t have something in the back of your head driving you nuts, you may not do anything. It’s not a good arrangement. If I were God, I wouldn’t have done it that way.[Interview, The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 20, 2009]”

“Sometimes it’s the suffering we don’t ask for that means the most.”

“There is a goodness in the world that got me through, that taught me it’s important to know who you are.”