A country doesn't need a businessman to run it: it needs a heartful, worldly, compassionate leader.

I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the character in half, on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he's made of sugar.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded . . . sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.

Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial.

Developing our sympathetic compassion is not only possible but the only reason for us to be here on earth.

According to me, your life is going to be a gradual process of becoming kinder and more loving. Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now.

It's a big world, and I really like it.

Character is that sum total of moments we can't explain.

The generalizing writer is like the passionate drunk, stumbling into your house mumbling: I know I'm not being clear, exactly, but don't you kind of feel what I'm feeling?

Kindness, it turns out, is hard - it starts out all rainbows and puppy dogs, and expands to include . . . well, EVERYTHING.

The perfect journey is never finished, the goal is always just across the next river, round the shoulder of the next mountain. There is always one more track to follow, one more mirage to explore.

Induction is the glory of science and the scandal of philosophy.

[Donald Trump] says if he wins, he'll accept the outcome. If he lose, he will not accept the outcome. That is playing by two set of rules that is not very fair.

The object becomes aesthetically significant when it becomes metaphysically significant.

I think we want to be around people that kind of push us and inspire us and maybe teach us.

Even though you're a member of the wrong party, you've got some great ideas.

There can be no peace of mind in love, since the advantage one has secured is never anything but a fresh starting-point for future desires.

We simply cannot afford any further delay in providing the IMF with the resources it requires to help contain the threat of further financial and political instability around the world.

For me, the money isn't a big issue. I'm at the end of my career and I'm just happy to play.

As a result, socialism and communism, in particular, use government to suppress religion to such a degree as to leave the one true God out entirely.