My personal favorite [ moment] was when someone asked for one selfie too many and [Andy Cohen] snapped and tried to kill her by hugging her.

The whole celebrity culture thing - I'm fascinated by, and repelled by, and yet I end up knowing about it.

The mark of a good book is it changes every time you read it.

I suppose if you've never bitten your nails, there isn't any way to explain the habit. It's not enjoyable, really, but there is a certain satisfaction - pride in a job well done.

In my opinion, the ability to love another person is one of God's greatest gifts, and I thank God every day for enabling me to give and share love with the people in my life.

Learning what you don't want to do is the next best thing to figuring out what you want to do.

Be honest about what you see, get out of the way and let the story reveal itself

You can't stop suffering, you can't stop terrible things from happening, but you can bear witness... The least us reporters can do is go there and tell their stories.

Anyone who has experienced a certain amount of loss in their life has empathy for those who have experienced loss.

If you feel like an outsider, you tend to observe things a lot more.

The people I admire most hadn't really followed a particular path that was visible when they were on it.

Have you no sense of decency, sir?

There are things in this world that no human being should be able to endure. We should die of heartbreak, but we do not. Instead, we are forced to survive, to bear witness.

I was a chemistry major, but I'm always winding up as a teacher in English departments, so I've brought scientific thinking to literature. There's been very little gratitude for this.

The books I read I do enjoy, very much; otherwise I wouldn't read them. Most of them are for review, for the New York Review of Books, and substantial.

Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it

Modernism is about space. Postmodernism is about communication. You should do what turns you on.

Documenting one's life in the midst of living it is a strange pursuit.

Romantic dramas? I love The Notebook. Titanic was great. Classic.

Don't let fatigue make a coward of you.

I maintain that every civil rights bill in this country was passed for white people, not for black people.