“Tracking my fear of exam results and the other branch fears that appeared led me to the root: fearing I couldn’t make my parents happy”

We can’t stop our parents from dying, but we use the fear to remind us to spend more time with them.

Your dharma has to fill a need in the world

You don’t get to be a jerk just because you’re skilled.

Our values are influenced by whatever absorbs our minds.

I am happy about who I am becoming. I am open to all opportunities and possibilities. I am worthy of real love. I am ready to serve with all I have.

Our search is never for a thing, but for the feeling we think the thing will give us.

Life’s too short to live without purpose, to lose our chance to serve, to let our dreams and aspirations die with us.

Everything you do is your spiritual life.

Yesterday is but a dream. Tomorrow is only a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

When we accept the temporary nature of everything in our lives, we can feel gratitude for the good fortune of getting to borrow them for a time.

We don’t have to do everything, that we can’t do everything, that what I can’t do is someone else’s gift and responsibility. My limitations make space for the gifts of other people

You are not your success or your failure.

Being present is the only way to live a truly rich and full life.

Do not give your attention to what others do or fail to do; give it to what you do or fail to do.

Criticizing someone else’s work ethic doesn’t make you work harder.

When someone hurts you, it’s because they’re hurt. Their hurt is simply spilling over. They need help.

I don’t say we all ought to misbehave, but we ought to look as if we could.

No matter how much we grow, we are never free of daily chores and routines, but to be enlightened is to embrace them. The outside may look the same, but inside you are transformed.

See, I believe that it is not true that different races and nations are alike. I’m profoundly convinced that that’s a total lie. I think people are different. Sardinians, for example, have stubby little fingers. Bosnians have short necks.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I personally feel that the Indian body type is not cut out to be size zero. I am not size zero and I don’t believe in that either.

Out of drag, I’m a white guy with a guitar, which isn’t special. There are a million white guys with guitars. But being a drag queen with a guitar is a lot more commanding.

France? I don’t want to be anti-French but there isn’t a more unattractive group of people on the streets.

Dressing well is a form of good manners.

I love informality. I hate dressing up. I hate to be conventional – and I hate every kind of snob.