“Not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree.”

“Being an artist means, not reckoning and counting, but ripening like the tree which does not force its sap and stands confidence in the storms of spring without fear that after them may come no summer.”

“In this there is no measuring with time, a year doesn’t matter, and ten years are nothing. Being an artist means: not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn’t force its sap, and stands confidently in the storms of spring, not afraid that afterward summer may not come. It does come. But it comes only to those who are patient, who are there as if eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly silent and vast. I learn it every day of my life, learn it with pain I am grateful for: patience is everything!”

“Summertime in the french countryside is the smell of ripening fig trees and the taste of wild blackberries.”

“She flutters a hand and historybreathes—innocence returns,sin ripens on the tree of knowledge,death comes to be.”

“The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes round numbers.”