At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the war was over.

This self-respect and sense of self-worth, the innermost armament of the soul, lies at the heart of humanness; to be deprived of it is to be dehumanized, to be cleaved from, and cast below, mankind.

People think I must have been turning cartwheels on the night I sealed the movie deal - which was only two days after sealing the book deal - but I was really quite terrified.

I think authors can get into trouble viewing the subject matter as their turf

It's easy to talk to a horse if you understand his language. Horses stay the same from the day they are born until the day they die. They are only changed by the way people treat them.

The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when their tormentors suffer.

For me, being a writer was never a choice. I was born one. All through my childhood I wrote short stories and stuffed them in drawers. I wrote on everything. I didn't do my homework so I could write

Without dignity, identity is erased. In its absence, men are defined not by themselves, but by their captors and the circumstances in which they are forced to live.

Without dignity, identity is erased.

I just thought I was empty and now I'm being filled...and I just wanted to keep being filled.

His books were the closest thing he had to furniture and he lived in them the way other men live in easy chairs.

Bald as the bare mountain tops are bald with a baldness full of grandeur.

I think that at this moment, I am trying to live the moments we're passing through. In the future, I will see where the future will take me.

[P]salms are basically prayers and hymns, by their very nature they are addressed to God or express truth about God in song.

I never want to feel like I've achieved my goal. It's like Chinese farmers. They never admit that it's a good season. They feel like they'll be punished.

I know I'm not bipolar or schizophrenic, but this career allows you to explore, to take some facets of yourself and spin it.

We are in the transport business. We transport audiences from one place to another.

there are some people who never acknowledge themselves in the wrong; God help them!

It's unbelievable, there's a book out attacking Gore, when he's the most unfortunate loser in political history.

Paul created a theology of which none but the vaguest warrants can be found in the words of Christ.