My go-to default is to try to be nice, which I feel does less harm in the long run than trying to be, say, assertive. If I am nice and maybe too passive, I find that easier to live with.

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 outer world is a reflection of the inner world. Other people’s perception of you is a reflection of them

It almost doesn’t matter what is real or unreal. It really matters what we choose to believe.

Never durst a poet touch a pen to writeUntil his ink was tempered with love's sighs.

Clara looked at Maria and tried to understand what she must do so that Maria would be able to see her. But the little French girl cast all around her the bronze of infinite solitude.

Knowledge does away with darkness, [anxiety], and doubt; for these cannot exist where knowledge is.

To me, the imagination is the ultimate renewable resource.

Don't go to summer camp. Bury your parents in the backyard and have the place to yourself.

Marlon [Brando] showed me that you could do the work and not have to shut yourself off from people or your family.

Also, stick around. Don't lose your heart, just keep going, keep at it.

Parenting meant that whether or not your children understood you, your obligation was to understand them.