I watched a documentary about the immigrant crisis around the world. And it does make me blush at all the times I've stood up on the stage and given your speech about the healing power of fiction.

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.

We were characters out of a movie. We were thoroughly alive. And we were absolutely beautiful.

It is sad that in this world people put great merit in what a person has more than what a person is.

When I was a young man I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. I didn't want to be a failure so I did ten times more work.

When you see a good horseman, you're unable to tell where the instruction is coming from. It's like telepathy.

It is the unbroken testimony of all history that alcoholic liquors have been used by the strongest, wisest, handsomest, and in every way best races of all times.

Being stubborn has helped, being selfish is not a bad thing.

My Heart is Bounding! I can fly anywhere as long as I'm with the Nakama I Love!!!" ~Leevy

Just as you wash your hands before eating, clear your mind before engaging with the world.

There is no contest between the company that buys the grudging compliance of its work force and the company that enjoys the enterprising participation of its employees

Workers need poetry more than bread. They need that their life should be a poem. They need some light from eternity. Religion alone can be the source of such poetry.