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

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

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.

Really, weren't these facts just placeholders until the long view could really assert itself?

Humility is of central importance I think it's an underappreciated virtue in the contemporary discussion of law and politics.

The more something upsets you, the more it is meant for you. When it no longer upsets you, it is no longer needed because the lesson is complete.

How shall we praise the magnificence of the dead, The great man humbled, the haughty brought to dust?

These days, the problem isn't how to innovate; it's how to get society to adopt the good ideas that already exist.

I actually got hurt in a steel factory in 1985 and so that changed my life. I went to a junior college and that's where I discovered acting.

It only 'doesn't work out' if you quit. Never, ever quit!

I didn't really understand fashion until I started going to Paris and seeing the ateliers and how hard these people work. It's art.

I had neither expert aid nor advice. I studied no courses in writing; until a year or so ago, I never read a book by anybody advising writers how to write.

Own who you are and celebrate it.