Only through our connectedness to others can we really know and enhance the self. And only through working on the self can we begin to enhance our connectedness to others.

Although it's not useful to drown in despair, it's also not useful to keep a 'positive attitude' when this means concealing or denying real emotions.

We will be in tune with our bodies only if we truly love and honor them. We can't be in good communication with the enemy.

Those of us who are locked into ineffective expressions of anger suffer as deeply as those of us who dare not get angry at all.

We cannot make another person change his or her steps to an old dance, but if we change our own steps, the dance no longer can continue in the same predictable pattern.

If we only listened with the same passion that we feel about being heard.

Anger is a tool for change when it challenges us to become more of an expert on the self and less of an expert on others.

An intimate relationship is one in which neither party silences, sacrifices, or betrays the self and each party expresses strength and vulnerability, weakness and competence in a balanced way.

Whole-hearted listening is the greatest spiritual gift you can give to the other person.

In long-term relationships ... we are called upon to navigate that delicate balance between separateness and connectedness ... we confront the challenge of sustaining both--without losing either.

If you want a recipe for relationship failure, just wait for the other person to change first.

A painting shouldn't be just a picture, it should be a philosophy.

God does not hold our environment accountable for our behavior

I really think admiration for nature can save us. I mean true admiration, to the point of not letting it be harmed.

In the old days people had far fewer channels in which to place their imaginative time. There's definitely more competition for time . . . and yet people seem to be reading [books] as much.

It's important to me that a man is good at taking care of people.

You are killing me, fish, the old man thought. But you have a right to. Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful, or a calmer or more noble thing than you, brother.

Changeless society is characterized by the absense of alternatives.

One of the great things about collecting contemporary art is that you mix with contemporary people.

As long as Fidel Castro is alive we [the American Government] will not normalize relations with Cuba. We don't want it, and he certainly doesn't.

I don't think anybody planned for me to be an actor. I didn't. I didn't know this was what I was going to do.