If you don't allow yourself the possibility of writing something very, very bad, it would be hard to write something very good.

A weapon does not decide whether or not to kill. A weapon is a manifestation of a decision that has already been made.

It's a rare gift to understand that your life is wondrous, and that it won't last forever.

The fingers on his flesh told him he was loved, that he had always been loved, and that the world was a place where above all else things that were good would find a way to burrow into you.

You don't choose what to believe. Belief chooses you.

I will not live in a city where dead bodies lie abandoned in the streets, and you will not tell the world I do.

... life is a series of tiny, unavoidable decisions.

The choices she's made have left her without choice.

A bullet leaves evidence that a mortar doesn't.

It's sad that bad things have to happen in order for us to stop and look around.

I hope that some day the practice of producing cowpox in human beings will spread over the world - when that day comes, there will be no more smallpox.

You can't always just put color filters in 80s aerobic videos or take stuff from public-access and look at it in this very ironic, self-conscious way. That only takes you so far.

At last concluded that no creature was more miserable than man, for that all other creatures are content with those bounds that nature set them, only man endeavors to exceed them.

The missiles come first, and the justifications come second.

Surprise is the enemy of prudence.

Self-knowledge is the first step to maturity.

Memphis are a big part of who I am, but it's still just a part

As an Olympic champion gymnast, I have always stayed involved in my sport.

Mayor Koch, of New York, was the first public figure to give me support.