For me, the fiction writer's job is to take the small, stupid process of learning to use an iPhone - and suddenly you're the guy who's asking your daughter, "When I go on Facebook, can it see me?"

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.

Compromise makes relationships survive.

Following graduation from Amherst, a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship enabled me to test the depth of my interest in literary scholarship by beginning graduate studies at Harvard University.

The SAS Reserve tends to be made up of former paratroopers and commandos who still want a challenge, but it is open to civilians.

The magic of film isn't just because of the big screen, or the acoustics, but the ineffable shared experience of going to the movies.

To say that a man is an idealist is merely to say that he is a man.

How is it that the sky feeds the stars?

The most dominant cultural attributes maintained are the ones that are reinforced by your environment.

Any man can be 62, but it takes a bus to be 62A.

I'm a free agent. I haven't allowed any promoters to have exclusive options on my fight. I don't need a promoter.

Corruption could lead to the collapse of the Party [Communist Party of China] and the downfall of the state [People's Republic of China].