My heart goes out to him. Sort of. Because empathy depends on how you've spent your day.

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 dark uneasy world of family life - where the greatest can fail and the humblest succeed.

I'm a really judgmental person, and it just dumbs everything down. It doesn't create any room for interrogation or investigation.

Countries are either mothers or fathers, and engender the emotional bristle secretly reserved for either sire.

An idea which can be used only once is a trick. If one can use it more than once it becomes a method.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake.

This is a really good circus. It has lions, tigers, dogs, monkeys and about any other animal act you can think of. There are a lot of great acts, and it's a two part, two hour show.

Now I take the summer off, relax, and I know that at the end of July we're gonna start another season.

It is difficult to understand these people who democratically take part in elections and a referendum, but are then incapable of democratically accepting the will of the people.

I want to be loved. Oh, it's SO CORNY, isn't it?! But I just want to be loved by a bloke that loves ME! I want to feel special, you know. I almost feel guilty for feeling it.

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.