I'm very happy - if I can do even a little bit of work to get the short story out more, I'm thrilled.

I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the character in half, on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he's made of sugar.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded . . . sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.

Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial.

Developing our sympathetic compassion is not only possible but the only reason for us to be here on earth.

According to me, your life is going to be a gradual process of becoming kinder and more loving. Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now.

It's a big world, and I really like it.

Character is that sum total of moments we can't explain.

The generalizing writer is like the passionate drunk, stumbling into your house mumbling: I know I'm not being clear, exactly, but don't you kind of feel what I'm feeling?

Kindness, it turns out, is hard - it starts out all rainbows and puppy dogs, and expands to include . . . well, EVERYTHING.

The only way to know if you can ever grab hold of your dreams is to reach for them.

Youth is feeling seventy years old, misanthropic, and ready to die at fifteen

I like dark humor. My favorite movie of all time is 'Harold and Maude.'

You believe in a book that has sticks turning into snakes, and you say we are the ones that need help?

I love bowling almost as much as I love not bowling.

Selfless giving changes our concept of our identity. When we give to others our unselfishness removes the spot of "self" that stained our awareness.

Kosovians can move back in.

We need to start listening to each other and getting out of our own little labeled bubbles.

A dog gets lonesome just like a human. He wants to associate with other dogs, but when they take him out, the poor dog is on a leash and cannot run around.

Before a person can achieve the kind of life he wants, he must think, act, walk, talk and conduct himself in all of his affairs as would the person he wishes to become.