Never hear what somebody thinks about you, you'll live longer. Hear that they're in pain. Don't hear their analysis.

Every criticism, judgment, diagnosis, and expression of anger is the tragic expression of an unmet need.

Your presence is the most precious gift you can give to another human being.

All violence is the result of people tricking themselves into believing that their pain derives from other people and that consequently those people deserve to be punished.

We are never angry because of what others say or do. It is our thinking that makes us angry.

Instead of playing the game "Making Life Wonderful", we often play the game called "Who's Right". Do you know that game? It's a game where everybody loses.

Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing.

People have been trained to criticize, insult, and otherwise communicate in ways that create distance among people.

You don't have to be brilliant. It's enough to become progressively less stupid.

Most of us grew up speaking a language that encourages us to label, compare, demand, and pronounce judgments rather than to be aware of what we are feeling and needing.

The most dangerous of all behaviors may consist of doing things 'because we're supposed to.

I love walking into a bookstore. It's like all my friends are sitting on shelves, waving their pages at me.

I have never made a decision based on race and never will.

One big reason I do what I do is there's no two days alike. It's not work for me. It's my life. My passion.

There's degradation of the environment. But the real issue is the degradation of one's inner environment.

That's the ideal meeting...once upon a time, only once, unexpectedly, then never again.

Whatever I hear in my head is what I play.

On our watch, the conversation with a would-be suicide bomber will not begin with the words, 'You have the right to remain silent.'

That's the biggest rule in Hollywood: Don't spend your own money.

Jesus was a crackpot.

No matter how noble the original intentions, the seductions of power can turn any movement from one seeking equal rights to one that would deny them to others.