Everyone agrees in theory that we can't judge a new idea or point of view unless we enter into it and try it out, but the practice itself is rare.

Producing writing is not so much like filling a basin or pool once, but rather getting water to keep flowing through till finally it runs clear.

It's an unnecessary burden to try to think of words and also worry at the same time whether they're the right words.

Meaning is not what you start with, but what you end up with.

It is the moment when what was chaos is now seen as having a center of gravity. There is a shape where a moment ago there was none.

Certainty is rarely if ever possible and we increase the likelihood of getting things wrong if we succumb to the hunger for it.

The question for writing then is this: how long are you willing to be unheard?

Molecules dissolve and pass away, but consciousness survives the death of the matter on which it rides.

The best gift that we can give to our enemy is not war, but forgiveness and peace.

Where was his empathy? Buried, I supposed, beneath his self-regard.

…the greatest danger to man in space was man himself.

If we can no longer believe in heavenly hierarchies, extraterrestrial hierarchies will suffice.

None but great men are capable of having great flaws.

[In mathematics] There are two kinds of mistakes. There are fatal mistakes that destroy a theory, but there are also contingent ones, which are useful in testing the stability of a theory.

I miss him already. He was a unique person and a dear friend. If a record came on the radio, you'd know it was Waylon Jennings.

I love seeing when actors go from one genre to the next because I feel like most of them can pull it off.

If the whole world is a battlefield, then the United States is also a battlefield.