I have no interest in problematizing things. So what I am writing to is that simple sense of being human in myself.

The secret of a happy life is respect. Respect for yourself and respect for others.

I see the American experience as being defined by the immigrant paradigm of rupture and renewal: rupture with the old world, the old ways, and renewal of the self in a bright but difficult New World.

If you want to really deeply touch the viewer or the reader, the theater might be the most powerful way to do it.

Here's the problem: we are living in a time when the act of reading is changing. The nature of a reader's attention is changing. The capacity for deep literary engagement is changing.

I think that literary forms are losing their capacity to connect people to issues, to the experiences that feel most meaningful to them.

I don't have an ideal reader. I'm trying to reach something simple and, I believe, universal, in every single person.

I don't know what it's like to be Jewish, but I suspect there is some aspect of that: being Jewish is the thing that bonds you as opposed to being Jewish from Poland, or Jewish from Hungary.

I don't want to test that simple sense of being human. I don't want to transform it.

The Quran is many different things, and we also have to see the Quran almost as a secondary source commenting on the Old Testament.

In my early 30s, I started to realise I was avoiding something on a personal level, but also as a writer. I was in denial about who I was, and was trying to be someone who I was not.

The game is full of peaks and valleys, the key is to avoid the Grand Canyon.

Here's a tip: never get drunk while wearing a hooded sweatshirt. You will eventually think there's someone right behind you.

God did not make a mistake when He chose you to bear Christ's name at this hinge of history.

I'm not an anarchist. I'm not saying, "Burn it to the ground."

I'd walk a million miles to give her what she needs. But she would walk a million more to do what she believes.

I think I'm proudest of making my parents proud.

When you get second place, you say 'I could have won it here, I could have won it there.' When you win, you never say anything; it's finished.

There are two ways to improve your service, and yourself: maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.

I'm really easy to get along with once you see it my way.

No doubt exists that all women are crazy; it's only a question of degree.