I am shocked that we seemed to have learned nothing, absolutely nothing, from Vietnam.

Make sure your message is clear, yet that you are faithful to its complexity.

What matters are those ordinary acts of kindness and of love, not vaulting ambition with its attendant hubris and smugness.

Throughout history the exemplary teacher has never been just an instructor in a subject; he is nearly always its living advertisement.

The world is a library of strange and wonderful books, and sometimes we just need to go prowling through the stacks.

I sometimes lie awake at night and try to imagine what would be the best period in history to spend one's seventy-odd years.

Science fiction is, after all, the art of extrapolation.

Order and surprise: these are two intertwined elements that make for any great library or collection.

Best selling authors are always worth listening to, even if you choose to ignore their advice.

I think the essence of [Kurt] Vonnegut's humanism lay in his emphasis on human kindness as, so to speak, our saving grace.

I think that his [Kurt Vonnegut's] appeal, though, will always be chiefly to adolescents. His sense of the world matches that of young people, who feel deeply life's absurdity.

Ulysses was an elaborate prank, and our supposed intellectual elite continue to fall for it.

Because different cultures see a particular animal as representing a certain human virtue or vice, the use of animal imagery also allows for more colorful commentary on the human condition.

I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for perfection is God's business.

The missional church is not a new trend or the latest new technique for reaching postmodern people.

I had wanted to say that my song was far too painful to sing.

I think the anti-intellectualism of a lot of contemporary fiction is a kind of despairing of literature's ability to be anything more than perfectly bound blog posts or transcribed sitcoms.

Them that's got shall get, Them that's not shall lose. So the Bible says, And it still is news. Mama may have, Papa may have, But God bless the child that's got his own.

It's hard for them to run away from their record. The Kochs are businessmen.

I think what I have done is claimed the space and pushed it forward as much as I can in relationship to who I am and how I live my life.

I'm happy with the success I've had, and I feel like there's been a lot that I've learned this year, and that's a great thing going into the future.