No exchange rate for the confidence of youth.

I suspect the most we can hope for, and it's no small hope, is that we never give up, that we never stop giving ourselves permission to try to love and receive love.

Traits don't change, states of mind do.

I actually see myself in all my characters. In order to imagine what it feels like to be another person I have to use my own experiences and responses to the world.

The facts didn't matter. Their stories mattered, and each of their stories belonged to each of them alone.

Had they known at these moments to be quietly joyful? Most likely not. People mostly did not know enough when they were living life that they were living it.

You surely know that in the course of a long marriage it is not unusual for a husband or a wife to develop a crush on someone else.

I'm so interested in the fact that we really don't know anybody. We think we know the people close to us, but we don't, we really don't.

In a way, I'm very interested in writing about Maine, because I think Maine represents its own kind of history. It's the oldest state, and it's the whitest state.

People like to think the younger generation's job is to steer the world to hell. But it's never true, is it? They're hopeful and good - and that's how it should be.

Or maybe, he thought, returning to the boxes, it was part of being Catholic--you were made to feel guilty about everything

Physical pain was easy. It would always pass in the end. All it needed was time - a ticking clock.

I was quite a shy child. I would get terribly nervous and throw up before my birthday party. And then I would be fine. I feel the same now. I get nervous, then it's fine.

My advice to new artists is to embrace a broader concept of timelessness than vintage or retro.

The only way to real mature love is to get past the tropes of what we consider 'romance.'

If I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening.

What you said hurt me very much. I cried all the way to the bank.

What is the difference between the Marine Corps and the Boy Scouts? The Boy Scouts have adult leadership.

ALWAYS chose the road less taken.

I'm a 6 AM guy. I get up at 6 AM every morning so I can knock out my email, phone calls and start the day.

America cannot afford a rally to restore sanity in the middle of a recession. Did you even consider how many panic-related jobs that might cost us in the fear-industrial complex?