One of the ideas that runs through this book [Lincoln in the Bardo] is this Buddhist notion that the mind is incredibly powerful; not the brain but the mind.

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.

Without Love, you can't know yourself.

If you believe that the killing of innocent people is right, then you are not part of my future.

Here, there isn't much but stories and rain. And a fella can get tired of the rain.

I don't go to premieres. I attend film openings I'm in, and that's about it. Fame and celebrity doesn't matter to me. The longevity of my career does.

Science, at bottom, is really anti-intellectual. It always distrusts pure reason, and demands the production of objective fact.

New Zealand's been pretty quiet on human rights issues, which we will be taking rather more interest in, and in international labor issues.

If we get it right, there need not be losers.

I want to be a destroyer that can save people.

The fallen autumn leaves were slick beneath Bod's feet, and the mists blurred the edges of the world. Nothing was as clean-cut as he had thought it, a few minutes before.

One who sets the entire army in motion to chase an advantage will not attain it.