I believe that we belittle survivors by assuming that they will fail.

People can be at their most vulnerable, but still tenacious at the same time.

Behind every stressful thought is the desire for things to be other than they are.

Defending unpopular positions is what lawyers do

I get intrigued by a puzzle, and writing a book is the best way to solve it.

I always think that there is the good and the bad of it all.

Screenwriting and making movies is really playing make-believe like most of us did as children.

Arbitrary benchmarks cheat kids out of a fulfilling education.

If you are weak, anyone can come and kick you

Life appears in a vast variety and innumerable succession of individual forms, since the most salient character of the universe is just that it ceaselessly gives birth to living individuals.

Allowing dying to be so intensely present enriches both the preciousness of each moment and our detachment from it.

It isn't that the lies are too beautiful to resist. It's that the truth is too hideous to face.

Ruins are ideal: the perceiver's attitudes count so heavily that one is tempted to say ruins are a way of seeing.