For most people, a life lived alone, with passing strangers or passing lovers, is incoherent and ultimately unbearable. Someone must be there to know what we have done for those we love.

Bad marriages don't cause infidelity; infidelity causes bad marriages.

The secret to having a good marriage is to understand that marriage must be total, it must be permanent, and it must be equal.

Love is not something people feel, but something people try to express no matter how they feel.

The more things we can laugh about, the more alive we become: The more things we can laugh about together, the more connected we become.

Fidelity is the single most important element in solidly enduring marriages.

Marriage, like a submarine, is only safe if you get all the way inside.

Fathering makes a man, whatever his standing in the eyes of the world, feel strong and good and important, just as he makes his child feel loved and valued.

Marriage isn't supposed to make you happy - it's supposed to make you married.

Fathering is the most masculine thing a man can do.

Parents can make us distrust ourselves. To them, we seem always to be works-in-progress.

In the morning, I usually get up between 7:40 A.M. and 7:45 A.M., and then I'll brush my teeth, do my hair, and just throw on my leotard and my clothes and go to the kitchen.

Life should imitate romance literature far more often.

The character has to have some kind of arch. The character has to go through an event, and be changed by the human event.

It's very nice having my mum as my agent. You know that she's always doing what's best for you.

There may be no trumpet sound or loud applause when we make a right decision, just a calm sense of resolution and peace.

The secret pleasure of a generous act Is the great mind's great bribe.

I have no fondness for pure form at all.

Discipline in perception lets you clearly see the advantage and the proper course of action in every situation—without the pestilence of panic or fear.

For a small reward, a man will hurry away on a long journey; while for eternal life, many will hardly take a single step.