Our brains do not have to be fixed, they can be plastic.

A relapse doesn't mean you'll never walk down the path you prefer. But I think relapses are almost an inevitable part of any course of self-development.

If we think of our brains as a map, those early roads are like grooves, tram tracks, easy to fall into.

In order to stretch ourselves we do need to experience the vulnerability of not knowing the outcome.

Our emotional map is laid down mainly in relationship with our earliest caregiver in the first couple of years of life.

If we are not using our brains' capacity for challenge it feels to me as though it atrophies like an unused muscle.

A sense of achievement improves general confidence and self-esteem.

I am talking about being optimistic enough to sow some seeds in the hope that some of them will germinate and grow into flowers.

There are probably times where the creative process is not helped by collaboration.

Two brains are better than one. You've twice the brain capacity and you have two sets of experiences and genes to bring to any challenge.

The trouble is if we take no new steps to try a new challenge, our comfort zone doesn't seem just to stay still, but retract.

By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This is to me is a miracle.

Someone's therapist knows all about you.

If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.

I believe the Patriot Act strikes the right balance needed to protect our freedom and security.

The Baptists' basic theology is that if you hold someone under water long enough, he'll come around to your way of thinking. It's a ritual known as 'Bobbing for Baptists.'

I don't mind being single. In fact, I like it.

Real miracles bother people, like strange sudden pains unknown in medical literature.

Philanthropic people lose all sense of humanity. It is their distinguishing characteristic.

We need radical curiosity and reverent pranks, voracious listening and ferocious thanks.

Racism is a grown-up disease and we must stop using our children to spread it.