Everything teeters between pathos and bathos: here you are, violating society's most fundamental taboos and yet formaldehyde is a powerful appetite stimulant, so you also crave a burrito.

Human knowledge is never contained in just one person.

What makes human life meaningful? I still felt literature provided the best account of the life of the mind, while neuroscience laid down the most elegant rules of the brain.

Even if you are perfect the World isn't.

Literature not only illuminated another's experience, it provided, I believed, the richest material for moral reflection

Putting lifestyle first is how you find a job- not a calling.

A word meant something only between people, and life’s meaning, its virtue, had something to do with the depth of the relationships we form.

People often ask if it was calling. My answer always is yes.

Putting lifestyle first is how you find a job-- not a calling.

[H]e found poetry more comforting than Scripture—and his ability to forge from his life a cogent, powerful tale of living with death.

The pain of failure had led me to understand that technical excellence was a moral requirement.

Writing is like a lump of coal. Put it under enough pressure and polish it enough and you might just end up with a diamond. Otherwise, you can burn it to keep warm.

Your greatest gift is your life.

You just can't beat the person who never gives up.

Today, nearly 40 percent of a senior's healthcare spending is on pharmaceutical medications.

By the way, I'm not just one man with a chalkboard. I'm one man with four chalkboards.

The typical American corporation is a shareholders' republic the same way that China is a peoples' republic.

Leaders make decisions that create the future they desire.

For my most of my career I've been a falling-down drunk. Most of my interviews were done hungover, and for a while it was great.

Jimi Hendrix's music was escapism.

Imagine what Masaccio or Leonardo would have done if they had an instrument with which they could point, push a button, and get an image.