If you're going to make an emotional connection with somebody, whether it's in the story or in the world, there's a certain amount of self-acceptance that is required.

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.

You cannot be named. To define is to confine.

From Shore To ShoreOur Message of Love & PeaceTo ALL OUR Kids

All weather is sin-related. Lust causes thunder, anger causes fog, and you don't want to know what causes dew.

I want every peasant to have a chicken in his pot on Sundays.

I want to build as many worlds as possible - each a version of ours with a crack running through it - and not be anchored to any of them.

When safety is our priority, we live our lives being very, very careful, and we wind up having no lives

Anticipating problems and figuring out how to solve them is actually the opposite of worrying: it's productive.

Euler calculated without effort, just as men breathe, as eagles sustain themselves in the air.

Hollywood, that whole industry, is a lot like a really small town. You bump into the same people all the time. I think Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon can be played with anyone and everyone in Hollywood.