He couldn't figure out if she was immensely well adjusted or seriously messed up.

I guess my life hasn’t always been happy, or easy, or exactly what I want. At a certain point, I just have to try not to think too much about certain things, or else they’ll break my heart.

Fiction is a solution, the best solution, to the problem of existential solitude.

It's doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.

Integrity's a neutral value. Hyenas have integrity, too. They're pure hyena.

Nice people don't necessarily fall in love with nice people.

The personality susceptible to the dream of limitless freedom is a personality also prone, should the dream ever sour, to misanthropy and rage.

The Mekons were kind of like the background music of my life.

Depression presents itself as a realism regarding the rottenness of the world in general and the rottenness of your life in particular.

Reading enables me to maintain a sense of something substantive– my ethical integrity, my intellectual integrity.

Fiction is a particularly effective way for strangers to connect across time and distance

Relationships are built on small, consistent deposits of time. You can't cram for what's most important. If you want to connect with your kids, you've got to be available consistently, not randomly.

Believers are each other's mirrors.

If the material is inspiring and motivates you, then it doesn't really matter what it is.

Because of my job, my hair gets played with a lot on set, so I try to give it little bit of breathing space when Im not working.

Mathematical Knowledge adds a manly Vigour to the Mind, frees it from Prejudice, Credulity, and Superstition.

God is not disillusioned with us. He never had any illusions to begin with.

So you can't live in Manhattan?' she asked. Amos's brow furrowed as he looked across at the Empire State Building. 'Manhattan has other problems. Other gods. It's best we stay separate.

One of the rewards of success is freedom. the ability to do whatever you like.

War is capitalism with the gloves off and many who go to war know it but they go to war because they don't want to be a hero.

If we do not feel grateful for what we already have, what makes us think we'd be happy with more.