I understand what something short should be like. I understand beauty in that form. If I start extending, somehow I kind of lose my bearings.

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.

Don't be afraid to lose him, because if a man truly loves you, he's not going anywhere

I've been so blessed to be part of a family that has dedicated its life to public service.

We are cruel when someone refuses to play the role in which we have cast him. We judge a person only according to his relationship towards us.

Beautiful loser, where you gonna fall? When you realize, you just can't have it all.

I used to sing on the school bus everyday.

Tell me how you measure me, and I will tell you how I will behave

Was I involved in selling drivers licenses to people illegally? Hell no I wasn't. Would I have tolerated it? Hell no.

I want to perform an unnatural act.

Education is a self-organizing system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon.

I'm a perfectionist, so it's hard for me to just accept that that I can't keep working until it's perfected. But I'm learning, I'm growing as a human in that way.