My heartfelt wish for you: as you get older, your self will diminish and you will grow in love.

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.

Always consider who you’re learning from. Don’t listen to people who are not experiencing the success you want.

Under stress, they seek composure above all. But they do not find equanimity.

I'm very fond of Tennessee Williams' plays, and when my husband and I went to New Orleans in the late 1970s, we saw 'A Street Car Named Desire.'

How did I escape? With difficulty. How did I plan this moment? With pleasure!

There are fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can reason analytically.

I'm for everybody. There are no set rules. But if one's not a joiner. To hell with all of them!

Israel is extraordinary blessed to have [Benjamin Netanyahu] as prime minister at this pivotal time in history and so is the United States of America to hear his voice against this deal.

Thermonuclear fusion is an absolute requirement, for the preservation of the human species.

My dad is funny in his own way, and so is my brother, but in terms of legitimately making a lot of people laugh, that's my mom. I inherit my sense of comedy from her.

They weren't really weddings, just long costume parties. (on three of her weddings)