I remember reading The Bluest Eye when I was a young parent, and something opened in me. That's the highest aspiration.

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.

A person with great knowledge is truly wealthy.

Love requires commitment, flexibility, transparency and loyalty. Happy Valentines Day 2017.

I’m good at being vague and unpredictable. It’s sort of a hard habit to break.

Like any good Englishman, he detests emotions and prefers a healthy dose of denial and tea.

I want to go back to the tell-me-again times when I slept in her bed and we were everything together. When I was everything to her. Everything she needed.

Politicians generally do the right thing only when all other options are exhausted.

There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner.

Whatever you do in life, if you want to be creative and intelligent, and develop your brain, you must do everything with the awareness that everything, in some way, connects to everything else.

We can be certain that cities around the world will compete for the jobs that the next revival of the financial services industry will bring.

If you pay close attention to each day, you will discover the magic moment.