I suppose in the end the whole of life becomes an act of letting go. But what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye.

If there’s only one nation in the sky, shouldn’t all passports be valid for it?

Time and sunshine healed a sore, but the process was slow, and new boils appeared if I didn’t stay dry.

..the most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man.

God is universal,” spluttered the priest.The imam nodded strong approval. “There is only one God.””And with their one god Muslims are always causing troubles and provoking riots. The proof of how bad Islam is, is...

Some of us give up on life with only a resigned sigh. Others fight a little, then lose hope. Still others-and I am one of those-never give up. We fight and fight and fight. We...

Kematian selalu membuntuti Kehidupan dengan begitu dekat, bukanlah karena keharusan biologis, melainkan karena rasa iri. Kehidupan ini begitu indah, sehingga maut pun jatuh cinta padanya. Cinta yang pencemburu dan posesif, yang menyambar apapun yang bisa...

To lose a brother is to lose someone with whom you can share the experience of growing old, who is supposed to bring you a sister-in-law and nieces and nephews, creatures who people the tree...

Art is rooted in joy.

The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity- its envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can.

I’ll be honest about it. It is not atheists who get stuck in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played...

It’s a misery peculiar to would-be writers. Your theme is good, as are your sentences. Your characters are so ruddy with life they practically need birth certificates. The plot you’ve mapped out for them is...

It seems to be a law of human nature that those who live by the sea are suspiciousof swimmers, just as those who live in the mountains are suspicious of mountainclimbers.

Despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out. It was a hell beyond expression.

I’ve never forgotten him. Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness...

He seems to be attracting religions the way a dog attracts fleas.

If God on the Cross is God shamming a human tragedy, it turns the Passion of Christ into the Farce of Christ. The death of the Son must be real. Father Martin assured me it...

Cinta sulit dipercaya, tanyakan pada siapapun yang sedang jatuh cinta.Kehidupan ini juga sulit dipercaya, tanyakan pada ilmuwan manapun.Tuhan juga sulit dipercaya, tanyakan pada siapapun yang memercayainya.Kenapa Anda tidak menerima hal-hal yang sulit dipercaya?

Slice a pear and you will find that its flesh is incandescent white. It glows with inner light. Those who carry a knife and a pear are never afraid of the dark.

But I want to pray to Allah. I want to be a Christian.

There are animals we haven’t stopped by. Don’t think they’re harmless. Life will defend itself no matter how small it is.

It’s not atheists who get stuck in my caw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for awhile. We all must pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we… But we...

I challenge anyone to understand Islam, its spirit, and not to love it. It is a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion.

There’s no peace like the peace of an inner courtyard on a sunny day.

It’s important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse. That...

To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

We are all born like Catholics . . . in limbo, without religion.

When you’ve suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling.

I did not grasp all these details – and many more – right away. They came to my notice with time and as a result of necessity. I would be in the direst of dire...

I was giving up. I would have given up – if a voice hadn’t made itself heard in my heart. The voice said “I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through...

Let that be a reminder to you that the past is one thing, but what we make of it, the conclusions we draw, is another. History can be many things, depending on how we read...

Hijau adalah warna yang indah. Warna Islam. Warna kesukaanku.

At moments of wonder, it is easy to avoid small thinking, to entertain thoughts that span the universe, that capture both thunder and tinkle, thick and thin, the near and the far.

Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat wearing Muslims.

For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each...

…I am a person who believes in form, in the harmony of order. Where we can, we must give things a meaningful shape. […] It is important in life to conclude things properly. Only then...

Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of...

I don’t mean to defend zoos. Close them all down if you want (and let us hope that what wildlife remains can survive in what is left of the natural world). I know zoos are...

I applied my reason at every moment. Reason is excellent for getting food, clothing and shelter. Reason is the very best tool kit. Nothing beats reason for keeping tigers away. But be excessively reasonable and...

It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.

Afterwards, when it’s all over, you meet God. What do you say to God?

How does one say in the jargon of musicology that my sould was pulled out of me and thrown up in the air, to be tossed about by the music. How does one say that...

Stories–individual stories, family stories, national stories–are what stitch together the disparate elements of human existence into a coherent whole. We are story animals.

When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival.

It was my first clue that atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith. Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them – and then they leap....

I was determined to move forward.

I wept like a child. It was not because I was overcome at having survived my ordeal, though I was. Nor was it the presence of my brothers and sisters, though that too was very...

Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love.I still cannot understand how he could abandon me...

For fear, real fear, such as shakes you to your foundation, such as you feel when you are brought face to face with your mortal end, nestles in your memory like a gangrene: it seeks...

Isn’t telling about something–using words, English or Japanese–already something of an invention? Isn’t just looking upon this world already something of an invention? The world isn’t just the way it is. It is how we...