I've seen time and time again the way that the process of trying to say something dignifies and improves a person.

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 most important thing I gained from my travels was the knowledge that one could achieve anything with determination and an ounce of luck.

We must have sinned greatly, at some juncture long buried in our protozoic past, to deserve such a universe

Happiness consists of living in the dailyness of life and not knowing how happy you are.

I do not believe that defending traditional marriage between one man and one woman excludes anybody or usurps anybody's civil rights and denies anybody their civil rights.

O be very sure That no man will learn anything at all, Unless he first will learn humility.

A society that refuses to strive for superfluities is likely to end up lacking in necessities.

I loved New Jersey. I thought it was the greatest place in the world because on Halloween kids could start trick or treating right after school. Isn't that great?

I try to be kind and generous, and to give to people, and to do what I think God wants me to do.

Cold, hungry, scared as hell inside, but too damn brave to admit it.

Any place is good for eavesdropping, if you know how to eavesdrop.